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Sonder

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Sonder

Strangers, Again

📖 DIARY ENTRY

June 13th

by Elara (me, obviously)

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I didn’t plan to look out the window.

I wasn’t even thinking, honestly. My head was just... buzzing. That kind of quiet chaos that comes after crying for no reason you can explain out loud.

Breakup still stings.

Not like sharp pain — just dull, heavy. Like dragging a full suitcase of feelings up the stairs and pretending it’s light.

I’m tired of pretending everything is light.

Anyway, the sky looked weird today. Like it couldn’t decide between rain or heat. I had my headphones in but wasn’t playing anything. Just letting the silence feel like a choice.

Then the noise came.

A moving truck.

A familiar laugh.

Boxes on the sidewalk.

A family I hadn’t seen since I was... what? Ten?

And then I saw him.

I froze.

Literally, like every single cell in my body went: you’ve gotta be kidding me.

He’s taller now.

Same hair. Same smile, somehow. Still soft around the eyes like he never learned how to look mean.

He was wearing black and eating a popsicle like the summer didn’t already make him too charming.

I ducked.

Not gracefully either. More like threw myself onto the floor like a war flashback just hit.

That was Calem.

From next door.

From years ago.

From childhood.

We never talked.

Not once.

He was always with his little siblings or playing soccer in the yard. I was always... watching.

And now, he’s back. And he saw me. I swear he saw me.

And I hate that my heart remembered him before my brain did.

I won’t talk to him.

I don’t care how warm his eyes look now. I don’t care if his voice sounds like everything I’ve been aching to hear.

We’re strangers.

We’re still strangers.

Right?

– Elara (aka me being dramatic but this is my diary I’m allowed.)

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So.

Guess who my parents just had to reconnect with?

Yeah.

Them.

One second I’m in bed overthinking, the next I hear my mom call my name like she’s summoning me to war.

I peek out the window and boom — she and dad are outside smiling like it’s a family reunion in a drama series. And who are they smiling at?

Calem’s family.

Yup.

Apparently, moving back to the neighborhood earns you a warm welcome and full-on life updates on the lawn.

And of course, my mom calls out:

“Elara! Come meet them!”

I tried to act like I was asleep.

Didn’t work.

A minute later, she was at my door like some horror movie jump scare.

“Get dressed. Don’t be rude.”

And baby, let me tell you — nothing humbles you more than standing in front of your childhood crush in a wrinkled hoodie with emotional eye bags under both eyes.

He smiled at me.

Smiled.

Like it was natural. Like we didn’t just skip 6 years of life.

“Hey,” he said, soft. Like he actually meant it.

“You look... different.”

My heart: BOOM.

My mouth: “Yeah. You too.” (WHY did I say it like a robot?!)

There was this pause.

Just a flicker.

I looked at him and for a split second I felt it.

Something.

I don’t know if it was nostalgia, recognition, attraction, or just my soul slapping me across the face for ignoring the obvious.