Chapter One - The Eyes That Followed Her
by @khalie436
The afternoon heat hung over Mushin like a heavy blanket.
Danfo horns fought with the cries of hawkers. A bus conductor leaned out of a yellow bus, shouting for passengers, while an okada rider squeezed through a space that barely existed. Somewhere behind the rows of shops, a generator coughed to life, adding its rough hum to the already restless street.
Tiara walked through it all with her head lowered.
She could feel people looking at her.
She tried not to notice.
She noticed anyway.
A woman arranging tomatoes beside her stall looked up as Tiara passed. Two boys sitting outside a phone-accessories shop nudged each other and stared. An elderly man glanced at her, shook his head, and returned to his newspaper.
Tiara tightened her grip on the small bag in her hand.
Just keep walking.
She quickened her pace.
Then two girls behind her started talking.
“Imagine these young ladies nowadays,” one of them said.
“Honestly,” the other replied. “They’ll just be carrying belle anyhow.”
They laughed.
Tiara's steps slowed.
They weren't talking to her.
She knew that.
But their words still struck her like a slap she had somehow seen coming and couldn't avoid.
carrying belle.
Her throat tightened.
She kept walking.
Mushin continued around her as though nothing had happened. A woman bargained loudly with a trader. A bus honked impatiently. Someone called out the price of bread from a nearby shop.
Everything was normal.
Only Tiara wasn't.
There had been a time when people spoke about her differently.
“That’s a good girl.”
“Tiara is very respectful.”
“She takes care of her younger ones.”
“She’ll go far.”
She remembered those words more clearly than she wanted to.
People used to smile when they saw her.
Some had pitied her because of everything she had been through, but even their pity had felt warm then.
Now, she couldn't tell the difference between pity and contempt.
She passed a small shop with a dusty glass window and caught her reflection.
She stopped.
The girl staring back at her looked tired.
Tiara stared at herself for a few seconds.
is this really me?
Her eyes dropped to her stomach.
The bump beneath her dress was no longer something she could hide.
Slowly, she placed a hand over it.
For a moment, the noise of Mushin seemed to fade into the background.
How did i get here?
Her eyes filled with tears.
She blinked them away.
No.
Not here.
She wasn't going to give anyone the satisfaction of watching her cry.
She lowered her hand and continued walking.
But for a moment, her reflection seemed to follow her.
So did the girl she used to be.
The girl who had plans.
The girl who had once looked at other girls and thought she knew exactly what kind of people they were.
I can never become like them.
A bitter smile almost touched her lips.
Life had a strange sense of humour.
“Tiara!”
She froze.
She knew that voice.
“Tiara!”
She turned slightly.
Chloe was standing across the road, waving at her.
“Tiara! Wait!”
Chloe hurried toward her.
Tiara's heart began to pound.
For one second, she considered stopping.
Then she noticed two people nearby looking in their direction.
Her chest tightened .
please, Chloe. Not here.
She turned away.
“Tiara!”
She walked faster.
“I’m calling you!”
Tiara pretended not to hear.
She heard every word.
She simply didn't know what she would say if she stopped.
What am i supposed to tell you?
Yes, I’m pregnant.
Yes, I’m the same Tiara you knew in school.
Yes, this is what my life has become.
She couldn't do it.
Her pace quickened until Chloe's voice disappeared beneath the horns, shouting, and generator noise.
Chloe finally stopped.
She watched Tiara disappear into the crowd, confusion settling across her face.
She hadn't called Tiara to mock her.
She hadn't even planned to ask about the pregnancy.
She had simply seen an old classmate and wanted to say hello.
But Tiara didn't know that.
She only knew what she had been seeing all day.
Eyes.
Whispers.
Judgment.
Tiara kept walking.
The road ahead was crowded, noisy, and unforgiving.
She placed her hand over her stomach again.
This time, she didn't pull it away.
She had become a story people told without knowing its beginning.
And in Mushin, where everybody seemed to know everybody's business, nobody seemed to know hers.