She walked as fast as she could away from the building, till she couldn’t breathe anymore. She found a bench and sat down, putting her head in her hands and staring down at the ground, letting her tears wet the sidewalk like so many raindrops.

Now she remembered all the times she’d done things she shouldn’t have, all the times she’d snuck out of her house to meet a guy who didn’t even care about her. There were so many of them their faces blurred together. She hadn’t really enjoyed the actual sex. The part she liked was right before and right after, when he really had to pay attention to her. It was the only time she hadn’t felt invisible.

Everyone in the streets passed her by, none bothering to stop and try to figure out what was wrong with this teenage girl, sitting on a bench and crying. And she knew that was truly why she’d chosen New York. She’d thought that here, if she was invisible, she could excuse it, because here almost everyone was invisible.

But it hadn’t worked. All she felt was lonely.