I shouldn't have stayed
The boy saw me.
I was on the balcony that night, trying to disappear — trying to forget everything that happened. I thought no one was watching. I thought I was alone.
But then he looked up at me.
I don't even know his name. Just soft brown eyes and a voice that sounded too kind for this world.
"Are you okay?"
No one ever asks me that. People usually cross the street when they see me. Some think I'm crazy. Others think I'm dangerous.
But he stayed.
He climbed the stairs.
He knocked on my door.
And I made a mistake… I opened it.
He doesn't know what I've done.
He doesn't know why I was crying.
He just saw me — Daniel — not the rumors, not the past. Just me.
That's the problem.
Because someone else saw us too.
When I woke up the next morning, I found a note pushed under my door.
No name. Just six words written in thick black ink:
"You're getting soft. Stay quiet."
My chest froze.
I knew exactly who it came from — the people I used to run with.
People who don't forgive. People who don't like witnesses.
They know I saw something that night… something I wasn't supposed to see.
And now they think I told him — the boy with the soft eyes.
But I didn't.
He doesn't know anything.
He just saw a broken boy crying in the dark.
But now they think he's a threat.
They think I'm getting close to him.
And if they think that… they'll go after him next.
I saw him again today.
He came back. Just stood outside the building, holding something.
My pen. The one I dropped when I rushed out of class.
I should've ignored him. I should've stayed hidden. But when I looked at him, my chest did that annoying thing again — like it wanted to believe someone could care.
He smiled.
I looked away.
He waved.
I closed the curtain.
I don't want him in this mess.
But I also don't want him to leave.
So now I have a choice.
Push him away before it's too late...
Or protect him — even if it means getting hurt again.
I don't know why he keeps coming back.
But the way he looked at me on that balcony…
It didn't feel like pity.
It felt like he saw something worth saving.
I'm scared for him.
But I'm scared of losing him too.
And that might be Worth