I sat at the bus stop, heel tapping out impatience against the pavement— I can’t be late again. My eyes kept falling to my phone, like it might move time faster, like it might forgive me. Then I looked up. And there they were. Someone I had never seen before, as if they had simply stepped into the world without warning. Something in me stilled. The noise of everything I was carrying began to dissolve— my restless tapping faded, my fingers loosened their grip around my phone. They had soft, kind eyes. A smile that didn’t ask for attention but stole it anyway. I couldn’t look away. I must have looked absurd— like someone witnessing something sacred, something impossible. Maybe I was. An angel, briefly mistaken for a stranger, and now impossible to forget. They stayed behind my eyes long after the moment itself, pressed into memory like light into film. Then my bus arrived, cutting across my view, as if the world had decided the moment was over. But I didn’t move. I stayed on the bench, letting it pull away first— just in case they reappeared for one more second of being real. inspo songs: Beautiful stranger by laufey Different kind of beautiful by alex benjamin