Kyoei No Senban (Ginger's Pov)

"I dunno," I said.

"Come on! Please!" Stacy pleaded. "I am begging! I'll do anything."

I gripped my inhaler tightly. I wish... I could be strong like her. I knew Stacy didn't think she was strong, but well, she didn't see what I saw. I guess... most people didn't see things the way I did.

"Come on! After all I do for you. You realize that-"

"Eep," I thought, as I pulled tighter into the chair.

She looked away for a moment. "Look... I'm... sorry. Just... for-"

"I... no, wait."

She paused at the door. "I gotta finish my report. Can I get back to you, after?"

She smiled. "Yeah." With that. Stacy Chambers, my best friend was gone. Best friend didn't exactly mean much in this context. It was more accurate to say, she was my only friend. Spring Break had officially started, we had already officially finished midterms but I had one paper due. It was due last Friday, but I got an extension cuz of my inhaler. It didn't work and I had a panic attack. The doctor said they found food crumbs in it. Stacy thinks one of the jocks was messing with me. Well. I definitely never got food in my inhaler before.

I tightened my grip on it. Wind blew through the window. Ugh. I could already smell the flowers. Well, I didn't really register the smell, so much as I registered the fear of my throat. I took a preemptive puff. Just knowing my inhaler was still working calmed me. Ugh, I was getting puff jitters. I could ignore them, but exercise was such a pain. Maybe a light walk could do me good? I could come back and finish my paper on Distributed Consensus Protocols.

I grabbed a jacket and a face mask. Puff or not, I didn't want a coat my face in basically poison.

The world is kind interesting isn't it? I find books super interesting that way. In first person, you hear people talk about things like roses being the most beautiful moment in someone's life. But for me, I might die without my inhaler. So I could understand what that person said, but like, I could never be there. I was in a different world. Like, for magic I get it, that is how it is forever one. But most of us can go smell a rose and enjoy it.

I paused and sat at the park to catch my breath. Kind of embarrassing really. This wasn't even a third of a mile from my dorm, and I was probably going half the average speed. A child probably would call me slow, and I still needed a break. It wasn't surprising most people didn't want me with them. I would just slow them down, and with only one life. Yeah. I get it.

I saw a couple buying icecream, looking to the side. I saw a third person watching. Hmm, lactose intolerant. Not quite like me though. The easy tell was how she wasn't looking around. She was just looking at the icecream. Her main source. Me? I had come to sort of give up on what I can't have, but it helped me get better at this. Looking at people like this. And the one thing that was always true. I was always invisible. I looked, and no one looked at me.

Most people fell into those groups. Those that didn't have, those that did, and those that wish they did and those that had given up. Lots of topics and you could mix and match them. I wasn't perfect. Even I had blind spots no doubt. But, it just made me think of Stacy. Her courage, she didn't think she had it, but she did, and it was something that most days I had given up, but on rare days like this, it was something I wish I had. And just, no one in the world had ever understood that.

I felt a chill down my back, turning I looked and noticed a woman in a green dress learning against a wall of one of the shops. She was staring at me? Wait... those eyes. No way? Did she.... understand?