The Bench Between Us
2 min read · Generated by Playla AI
Dev sat on the left side of the bench every lunch break. Zoya sat on the right. They never spoke. They'd been doing this for a month.
Dev read comics. Zoya sketched in her notebook. Between them: exactly thirty centimetres of empty bench.
One windy day, Dev's comic flew out of his hands and landed in Zoya's lap. She looked at the page. 'You read Captain Courage?'
'You know Captain Courage?' Dev's eyes went wide.
'Know him? I draw fan art.' She flipped open her notebook. There was Captain Courage, drawn in Zoya's style — better than the original, Dev thought.
'That's... amazing.'
Zoya shrugged, but she was smiling.
The next day, the thirty centimetres became twenty. Dev brought a second comic to show her. Zoya brought coloured pencils.
By Friday, the gap was zero. They sat shoulder to shoulder, Dev writing story ideas and Zoya illustrating them. Their first collaboration: a new superhero called Bench Girl, whose power was making invisible walls between people disappear.
'Pretty specific superpower,' said Dev.
'The best ones always are,' said Zoya.