“Look at me,” Vespa said. Her voice was low, a steady rumble beneath the crash of waves. “Not the drop. Not the rocks. Me.”
“I can’t,” she whispered, more to the wind than to herself. vespa & awlivv – oral encouragement
Awlivv closed her eyes. She felt Vespa’s hands—calloused, sure—cover her own on the handlebars, then gently pull them away, guiding her to stand. “Look at me,” Vespa said
“You’ve climbed harder things than this,” Vespa continued, thumb brushing Awlivv’s jaw. “You’ve survived winters that tried to break you. You walked away from people who swore you’d never leave. That path down there? It’s just stone and switchbacks. But you—” she paused, letting the word settle. “You are not ‘just’ anything.” “Look at me