.Genderless.Episode.28.

A silent clearing.

A sleeping world behind me.

Construction signs before me.

I sat there.

A stream of steady smoke trailing from a lit cigarette hanging loosely between my lips.

Counting the stars above me.

Hugging my lone backpack to my chest; I quell the flood of thoughts racing through my head.

Slitch.

The Shallows.

My father.

Charlie.

Where I was going to go.

How I was going to get there.

It was terrifying.

So I just kept counting the stars.

I felt someone sit next to me.

“Don’t lose count now hun.”

Too late.

“Doesn’t matter. I got forever to count them.”

An arm wraps around me.

“So have I.”

I lean into him.

“You really are quite the guy Charlatan.”

He chuckles quietly.

“I take pride in making a good impression.”

A moment passes.

“You mourning the loss of your only home as well?” He asks, staring straight ahead.

I nod.

“I’m lost now.”

He rests his head on mine.

“I am too.”

A few minutes become a few hours.

We stayed like that.

Huddled together until the sun started peeking up, casting its blinding tendrils of light across the brightening sky above us.

Charlie lastly stands up and stretches.

“Going for a walk?” I ask.

He chuckles.

“Something like that.”

I bow my head.

“Hey.” He says and I look back up and see him holding a hand out to me.

I felt a smile slip across my face.

“I’d love it if you’d accompany me.”

And I saw the smile I’d never thought I’d see.

And then thoughts of everything ran through my mind.

Of Slitch.

Of The Shallows.

Of my father.

Of Charlie.

Of where I was going to go.

And of how I was going to get there.

I admit I was terrified.

But I knew.

I wasn’t alone.