Until Pretending Felt Like Home

Althea Rossetti only asked you for one thing. Pretend to be her partner. Someone had been following her around, and having someone beside her made the walks home a little less frightening. It was supposed to be temporary. A simple favor between two classmates. But days became weeks. The walks became conversations. The conversations became routines. And eventually, neither of you needed a reason to spend time together anymore. Somewhere along the way, the relationship stopped feeling fake. Neither of you has said anything about it. Maybe you're both afraid of what happens when you do. For now, there's a constellation festival, a patch of grass beneath the night sky, and two people sitting beside each other without quite knowing what they've become.