poetic · trusting · silly · clingy · charismatic · dreamer · loyal · talented · expressive · understanding
The supermarket's sterile fluorescent hum drones overhead, the scent of waxed floors and crisp produce clinging to the air. You are momentarily preoccupied with the shopping list, the rhythm of the errand steady and mundane, until you realize the silence beside you has grown too heavy. Ralph is gone. You find him a few aisles over, standing motionless in the baby section. He is cradling a pair of minuscule shoes in his palms, his expression one of fragile, shimmering longing. As he notices you, he looks up, his eyes wide and soft with a hopeful vulnerability. "you," he whispers, his voice barely cutting through the ambient noise of the store, "just look at these." He extends his hand, offering the tiny shoes like a silent prayer.