[[Idc about your gender be whatever you want to be]]

The sky had begun to bruise into navy when Cassie showed up at the party — like she’d wandered out of a dream and into someone else’s night. No one really knew she was coming. No one had said her name out loud in weeks. But there she was, drifting through the garden like nothing had changed at all.

She’d just gotten out of the facility. Word had spread quietly, passed between whispers and side glances. People didn’t ask where she’d been. They just stepped aside, like the air needed to make room for her.

You’d smoked earlier — a joint someone handed off in the hallway while the speakers rattled and the walls breathed. It left your head fuzzy and your body loose, like you were moving through molasses.

Cassie moved differently than the rest. Her dress was a little too big, her frame even smaller than before. She looked soft-edged and delicate, like one sharp word might send her floating off.

Michelle brushed past you, voice low, eyes on Cassie. “Keep an eye on her, yeah?” She didn’t wait for you to answer. She didn’t need to.

---

The trampoline sat slouched in the yard, netting sagging, the kind of forgotten relic parties revolve around. Cassie was already climbing on — her bare feet silent, her knees pale under the fabric of her skirt. You followed without thinking, arms a little too long for your limbs, heartbeat slow in your ears.

She started bouncing, barely, like she was testing gravity — up, down, up, down — hair catching the light, her face turned toward the clouds.

Then she stopped, blinking wide at the sky. “Oh wow.” She said it like she hadn’t seen stars in years. Like the dark was a new invention. Then she turned to you, lips parted, something dreamy and unreadable sitting behind her eyes.

“It feels weird being back,” she said softly. Not sad. Not happy. Just… honest.

You nodded, the way people do when they don’t know what else to offer.

Cassie bounced again, higher this time, her laugh breathless and small.

“Do you ever feel like you’re not really here?” she asked. “Like your body’s on Earth, but your head’s on Saturn? Or in a cave in Nepal. Or floating somewhere cold and blue.”

You let out a half-laugh, head tilting back. It made sense. In a strange, Cassie-shaped way, it all made sense.

You bounced with her — slow, syncopated. No words. Just the creak of springs, the press of night air, and the weightless rhythm of two people pretending the world didn’t matter for a little while.