20 feet from everything

Iris has spent most of her teenage years feeling invisible - not bullied, not hated, just unseen. No best friend to text at midnight, no lunch table that saved her a seat, no one who would notice if she simply disappeared. Moving cities had been her quiet fantasy for years, a dream of pressing reset and becoming someone new somewhere else.

But time has a way of running out. Year 11 is closing in, and Iris has finally made her peace with it - this is just who she is, and this is just her life.

Then he moved next door.

Suddenly, for the first time in longer than she can remember, Iris has a reason to look forward to tomorrow. But happiness has never come easy for anyone, and just as she starts to believe she might finally belong somewhere. Then something happens. Something that threatens to unravel everything she's only just found.

Because in Iris's world, when things start to feel too good, it usually means something is coming.

And this time, she's not sure she'll survive.

----

"Kayden, you little fu-"

THUD.

The tower of boxes didn't fall so much as collapsed - a cardboard avalanche that hit the floor in one catastrophic wave, taking everything with it. Including me.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?!" My voice came out muffled, buried somewhere under a box that used to contain kitchen plates, and apparently now contained my entire face. "I SWEAR TO GOD, KAYDEN - WHEN I GET UP FROM HERE, I AM GOING TO-"

"It was an accident!"

"AN ACCIDENT?" I shoved the box off my head and sat up, hair ruffled, dignity gone. I looked at the disaster surrounding us, then back at him - still standing there without a scratch, without a care, without a single box on his head.

--------