The Dinner Photo Nobody Hearts
I send the family chat a dinner photo every night at nine. No one's reacted in six weeks, and I still send it.
Every night at nine I take a photo of whatever I'm eating and send it to the family chat. Leftover rice. A sad little salad. Once just toast, because I wanted to see if anyone would ask why toast for dinner.
Nobody's asked. Nobody's reacted since sometime in July, though the chat's still alive, my mom forwards recipe videos to it most days, my brother drops the occasional meme. I watch the read receipt change under my message and that's the whole transaction. Seen. Nothing after.
I know exactly why I keep doing it and I don't let myself finish the thought. If I stopped sending the photo, I'd find out how long it takes anyone to notice the silence, and I'm not ready to know that number.
Tonight I stood in the stairwell where the signal's better than my apartment, typing it out, thumb over send, and I thought about just not, for once, letting the day end without proof I was in it.
I sent the photo of my pasta anyway. Read at 9:04. No one said a word.
I went back inside and didn't examine why that felt like the safer choice.