Life -life With A Runaway Girl- -rj01148030- Apr 2026

She flinched, pulling the hood of her jacket tighter. A single, wide eye, rimmed with red, peered out from the shadows. She couldn't have been more than sixteen. Her face was smudged with dirt, and her lower lip was split.

I sighed, the cold air turning my breath to steam. “Look, I’m not a cop. I’m not a creep. I’m just… tired. And you look like you haven’t slept in a week.” I nodded toward the corner. “My apartment is two blocks up. It’s not much. But it has a heater that works and instant ramen that doesn’t.” Life -Life With A Runaway Girl- -RJ01148030-

I didn’t look. I just turned a page. The scratching of the pencil was the most beautiful sound I’d heard in years. She flinched, pulling the hood of her jacket tighter

I looked at the drawing, then at her—her hair clean and brushed, her cheeks no longer hollow, her eyes holding a light that wasn’t there before. Her face was smudged with dirt, and her lower lip was split