Sebastian Blake – First Person
She was in the garden again. Kneeling in the grass like it didn't stain, humming under her breath like there weren't wolves circling her world every second of every day.
The sun was out for once. Rare, golden, soft.
She was pulling weeds with her bare hands. Stubborn little things clinging to the roots. I stood by the window longer than I should've, watching her struggle with the overgrown mess like it owed her something.
Then I noticed her hair.
It was everywhere—falling into her face, sticking to her lips, blowing wild in the breeze.
She kept pushing it back.
And then forgetting.
And then pushing it back again.
Like she didn't know she could ask for help. Like she didn't know anyone would give it.
I went to my desk. Pulled open the top drawer. My hands knew exactly where to go, even though I hadn't touched it in years.
A black silk hair tie.
It had belonged to someone else once. A memory I never revisited. But I didn't think about that now.
I walked out into the sun.
She didn't hear me at first. She never did. She was too lost in whatever world she'd built for herself in the dirt.
When she finally looked up, she blinked in surprise.
"Sebastian," she said, standing too fast. The weeds dropped from her hand. "I didn't know you—"
I held out the hair tie.
She stared at it.
Then at me.
Then back again.
"I thought you might need it," I said, flatly. Like it didn't mean something. Like this wasn't a piece of me I was offering.
She took it like it was glass.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Her eyes were wide, lips parted, confused.
"You didn't have to—"
"I know."
She opened her mouth again.
Closed it.
Then pulled her hair back into a ponytail. The hair tie slid around her wrist first, just like it always had on her. She used both hands to gather the black mass and wrap it up.
It was such a small thing. Silly, even.
But when she smiled at me—quiet and soft, touched in a way I couldn't bear—something shifted.
Not in her.
In me.
"I'll bring it back," she said.
"Keep it."
I turned and walked away before she could thank me.
But I heard it anyway.