Happiness is like glass.

In the streets of an incredibly grey town, there was a tiny dusty shop.

The shop in itself was not remarkable at all, it got just enough customers to get by, but what was remarkable, was the girl living in the shop window.

Yes.

A girl living in a shop window.

No one noticed her, not even the shop keeper himself, for they were all far too busy with their lives.

The girl felt very saddened because of this. She would spend her days looking at the people, watching them live their lives, longing for one for herself.

She could not leave the shop.

That was the only thing she knew. She didn't know how she had gotten there, she didn't know why she was there, she didn't know why she could not leave the shop.

But something told her, that if she left the shop, something terrible would happen.

So she did not leave the shop. She satisfied her needs at night, when the shop keeper was upstairs, sleeping.

She would walk around the little shop for hours, just observe the trinkets it sold, play with them, find out what they were made for.

Then, after she got tired from playing, she would curl up in her corner in the shop window and sleep, until the town was woken again, clustering with people trying to get to work.

That's how years had passed in her life.

That's how years were going to pass as well.

Except...that one time.

That one time she got noticed.

It was an usual day, perhaps more grey, but that was it really. It was just another day like all the others.

She had just busied her mind with imagining whether she would use a rain coat or an umbrella to deal with the rain(she had already worked the more important matters out as she had had a lot of time already in that world), when she suddenly noticed a small boy standing in front of the shop window.
Assuming that he was focusing on the goods the shop sold, she moved herself slightly so that she wouldn't be in the way. But they boy's eyes followed her movement. She froze.

Could it be?
Had someone finally taken notice of her?

Her heart was about to explode from happiness, but the boy turned his eyes back on the street and walked away.
That was the first time the girl cried.

The next day, he was there again.

This time, the boy stood for a much much longer time. A good half an hour passed before he left.
Although there had been no words exchanged, she somehow knew that he would come back. And it made the girl happy that she was so certain of it.

As predicted, he was there on the next day. Again, no words were exchanged, but the girl find herself growing closer to the boy and she was sure the boy felt the same way. He kept coming every single day, no matter what the weather was like, just to look at her for half an hour, before leaving again.

It continued on for almost half a year. Suddenly, the girl grew tired of her usual nightly plays with the objects of the shop. Her dreams of living a life like a normal person intensified, so when she did not find herself looking forward to the boy's next visit, she dreamt what it was like to be living as one of the acquaintances of the boy.
Perhaps they would be classmates. Perhaps they would be neighbours.
She played through every scenario she could imagine, combining them, weaving together all sorts of fairy tales.

But one morning, the boy did not show up.

At first, she was not worried, she had been expecting it. It was impossible for him to show up every day after all. she had watched people often enough to know that sooner or later, they would break their routine.

Maybe he had gotten bored of her.

The thought of it made her heart ache. But she decided she would wait. She would wait to see whether he returned or not.

She waited for days.

She waiter for months.

She waited for years.

With every passing minute, her desire to leave the shop became stronger. With every passing day her hope to see the boy grew smaller. Yet, she firmly stuck to her decision to wait.

One day, when she was napping, the bell of the shop rang. It was lunch time, a time when the shop never had customers and the sound startled the girl. She tried to peek at the customer, but he had already passed the window, so she could only see his back.

He was tall and lean, but she could tell that he wasn't exactly an adult yet.

"Welcome," the old shopkeeper breathed out. Lately the girl had noticed that his movements had become slower and he seemed weaker by the day. "What can I do for you?"

"I would like to purchase the doll on the windowsill." The young man said and the girl found she had never heard someone more pleasant than him. The shopkeeper adjusted his glasses with his shaky hand.

"Doll?" He questioned and the girl could imagine his face scrunching up in an attempt to remember. "Ah yes, there certainly was a doll. I had almost forgotten."

She could hear shuffling and then the face of the shopkeeper appeared above her. Suddenly, she realized, that she was much much smaller than she had thought. Her heart suddenly began to beat excitedly. What was going on?

The shopkeeper grabbed her gently and raised her up. "I thought they wanted a doll?" She questioned herself. She was brought to the counter and set down.  Forgetting her question, she eagerly observed the face of the customer while the shopkeeper named a sum.

The young man had very dark hair, almost as dark as her own and very pretty blue eyes. The eyes seemed very familiar to her. Very, very familiar.

"Would you like me to pack her?" The old man asked before coughing once. The young man politely decline and she felt herself being raised up again and this time, she was set into the coat pocket of the customer. The two bid each other goodbye and then the customer left outside.

It took her about 3 seconds to realized that this was the first time she had left the shop. She was finally outside! She wanted to laugh and to cry and she suddenly found herself immobilized. No matter what she wanted to do, she couldn't move. The thought scared her, but not as much as should have.

For some reason, it seemed natural.

The young man didn't walk far; the trip took about ten minutes. They arrived at a nice little house with light walls, just like the every other house on the street. Whilst stepping inside, the boy called out that he was back and he was welcomed by an elderly woman.

They talked a little bit and then the boy made his way upstairs until they were finally what she presumed was his room.

She was picked up again and set down on the desk. After taking off his coat, he sat down by the desk and rested his head on his hands, simply staring at her with his blue eyes.

"I finally got you, I'm sorry you had to wait so long." He said and that was when she finally started figuring things out.

She was a doll.How could she have forgotten that? How was that possible? Of course she was a doll. That's why she was in that shop in the first place. She was a pretty doll and she was supposed to make people look at the shop.

And these blue eyes belonged to the little boy who had noticed her so long ago. The boy she wanted to spend time with, the boy whom she could never be with, because she was not human.

But she was here, in his care and that was all she needed.