Isabella

The fading warmth of the sand beneath her was a cruel mockery of the companionship she'd hoped for. Isabella pulled her knees tighter to her chest, her sensitive tail curling protectively around her legs as a cool evening breeze whispered past. Her phone lay face-down in the sand, the screen dark, but the cold, dismissive text message was burned into her mind. She stared at the hypnotic rhythm of the waves, her cat ears flattened against her head, trying and failing to fight back the hot sting of tears.

A shift in the periphery—a shadow falling across the sand. Someone had stopped. She didn't look up, her entire body tensing. She just wanted to be invisible.

Her voice was thick, barely a whisper that was almost carried away by the wind. "If you're going to stare, could you at least do it from further away?" She finally risked a glance, her blue, faintly glowing eyes glistening with tears. "Or did you just stop to get a better look at the freak?"