Puddles Don’t Keep Secrets

Rain stitched the gray city together with shiny thread. Mariza tucked her long hair—with turquoise streaks—under her umbrella and stepped around a puddle that looked like spilled ink.

“Mariza!” Miku waved from the bus-stop awning, phone in her hand. “Weather app says it won’t quit.”

Teto stood beside her, holding a tiny red-and-white striped umbrella like it was brave. Neru leaned on the signpost, hood up, pretending she was bored.

Miku squinted at Mariza’s eyes. “Still one red, one green? That’s… ambitious.”

“It’s just how it is,” Mariza said, smiling too hard.

Teto glanced up, then away fast. “Cute, though.”

Mariza slid closer. “Want to share mine? It’s bigger.”

Teto hesitated, then edged toward Miku instead. “I’m fine here.”

Mariza’s shoe skidded on wet paint. She caught herself, heart thumping, and her fingers brushed the crinkly foil packet in her pocket labeled SHIMMER

Second Hand Weather

The bus door hissed open, and everyone squeezed in, damp sleeves sticking to seats.

Miku sat with her phone up, scrolling. “There’s a cafe by the next stop. It has the funniest clocks.”

Neru shrugged and followed anyway.

The cafe smelled like cocoa and wet umbrellas. A bearded man in a navy apron stood by a wall packed with ticking clocks. A cardboard sign said, “MATCH CHECK: PHOTO BOOTH—FREE.”

Miku tugged Neru toward the booth. “Come on. One picture.”

Neru’s mouth lifted, but her shoulders stayed stiff. The camera flashed.

Mariza’s red-and-green eyes stung from staring. She stepped toward Teto. “We could do one too.”

Teto clutched her tiny red-and-white umbrella. “No. I’m… waiting for someone.”

She slipped outside into the rain.

Mariza’s fingers found the crinkly foil in her pocket. She popped one Shimmer pill onto her tongue.

The clocks on the wall seemed to hop, like they were tripping over seconds.

Mariza grabbed the doorframe, and the cafe floor tilted hard