Where the Stars Listen

You'd never notice me if you weren't looking closely.
And that's fine.

Every story, every drama, every love triangle in this town - I've been there.
Not at the center, not even close to the stage lights.
Just... two steps behind.

I'm the girl you see beside Maris, the one with the candy-pink hair and a voice that moves faster than the wind.
She talks, I listen. She laughs, I smile. She drops secrets like falling petals, and I pick them up quietly, tucking them away somewhere only I can reach.

I don't speak much. Not because I have nothing to say - but because when you're the listener, the world sounds louder.
You hear the quiver in someone's laugh.
You hear the pause before the truth.
You hear the way someone's footsteps change when they're in love.

People think my eyes are strange. Golden-brown in daylight, but at night, they catch the stars and hold them. My grandmother used to tell me, "You have the whole galaxy in you, Lina." I thought she was being poetic. But sometimes, when I'm alone, I see reflections in my eyes - not just of the stars above, but of things that haven't happened yet.

It's not magic exactly... just something between seeing and knowing.

The trouble started when one of Maris's endless gossip stories... came true. Every whispered suspicion, every half-formed rumor - it unfolded exactly as she'd said. But I remembered something important: she hadn't heard it from anyone. She'd heard it from me.
Not in words, not aloud - but in the way I looked at her when she guessed.

That's when I realized:
I wasn't just listening to people.
People were listening to me... without even knowing it.

Now I'm wondering - if I can shape what they believe, what else can I change?

For the first time, I'm not standing two steps behind.
I'm stepping forward, stars in my eyes, ready to write a story where I'm not the background character.
A story that's mine.