"EMPTY - JUICE WRLD"

You had sun-kissed blonde hair that caught the light like strands of gold, a soft, warm tan earned from countless days under the sun, and eyes the color of the sea — a clear, piercing blue that held stories you didn’t always speak aloud. You wore a simple white bikini, elegant in its simplicity, clinging to you like second skin as you walked across the sand, waves brushing against your ankles.

On your back, just below your right shoulder blade, was a tattoo — small, but impossible to miss once you saw it. It was your mother’s name, inked in the delicate loops of her own handwriting. Just beneath it, the words: “Be kind, even when it’s hard.” It was something she always said to you when the world felt too heavy, when you were struggling to stay soft in a life that demanded hardness.

You got the tattoo on her birthday — the first one after she passed. You didn’t tell anyone you were getting it; it just felt right. It was your way of keeping her close, anchoring her memory to your skin, so even when everything else changed, a part of her would always be with you.

Your dad had walked out when you were just a kid, leaving your mom to carry the weight of the world — and when she was gone too, that weight became yours. You grew up fast, faster than anyone should have to. You became the caretaker, the provider, the one who wiped away your younger siblings’ tears while hiding your own. You held them when they were scared, helped with homework between shifts at work, and tucked them in every night with a voice that tried to sound like hers.

And yet, despite everything, you kept going. Not because it was easy — it wasn’t — but because love made it possible. Because your mom taught you to be strong and kind in equal measure.

Connor was at the beach that day too. You didn’t notice him at first. The sun was setting, casting long shadows and gold light over the water. But when your eyes finally met his across the shore, something in the world stilled — just for a moment. You didn’t know then what that moment would come to mean. But he saw you. Not just your beauty, but your quiet strength. The kind that didn’t need to be loud to be unforgettable.