When Rachel appeared, she moved like a sunrise — sudden, impossible, warming. Her smile did something to the air, and Chloe felt the seams of the world tug in a way that made everything else rearrange around them. They spoke in a language that only belonged to people who had decided together to be reckless and present. The words they used did not matter as much as the way they landed. There were promises in those pauses; there was a fragile trust that, like the photo, could be smoothed and carried.
