52. Tattoo girl

She did it to keep people away. The staring was a surprise and something she had learned to deal with. She was expert at averting her eyes and as a result found it hard to connect with anyone. The people she wished to let in took her at face value and that led to a sad, insular, loneliness. It was a shame because she was soft and endearing.

51. Apartment terrace

Their life seemed dreamy, full of sparkle and shine. It was so different from hers, which felt drab and melancholy in comparison. She watched their dinner parties, their little arguments that always ended in romantic bedroom escapades. She became the ultimate voyeur, though to her it was more like becoming obsessed with a TV soap. Then one day their flame spluttered and it became ugly. She never knew that they started to watch and dream of her mundane life, because she had stopped watching them long ago.

50. Bus Stop

He wanted to talk to her desperately. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen her, just the first time he had a clear unchallenged view. She was clueless of course, but that only added fuel to the unrequited romance he conjured in his mind. He would never talk to her, just imagine for years what it would be like. Then the bus arrived and it wasn’t his.

49. Traffic

His legs stuck to the vinyl seats slicked in sweat even though it was barely midday. His driver’s side arm was already sun burnt and coated in the dust of the city. But it felt normal to him. The rusted out hulk of brick canyons was home and he had no problem being shoved down its valleys on his never-ending route. It was the cacophony of bleating horns that bothered him. So he shoved his ear buds in tighter to block it out.