lamp

Bathed in orange light my fingers dance across the keyboard with a skill born from inherent loneliness. Bits of my soul fleck off with each letter, dancing to the ground like snowflakes.

My canine companion curls up at my side, radiating warmth like a miniature furnace. Outside, the moon makes its nightly trek between the horizons,blinking in and out of view above the pine canopy. 'Change is coming' I tell myself for the thousandth time. 'Just make it to college, things are better there.' I scoff at my own optimism, sometimes I wonder if I'm simultaneously too mature and naive to be around people my age. One of my greatest fears is never finding a place I fit in, always being an outsider looking in.

A faint beep brings me out of my reverie back to reality, midnight again, the start of another lonely weekend