not alone

Cassie looked up at the bleak skies, warily eying the darkening clouds gathered in the distance. She shivered and pulled her coat closer against the incoming wind, then plunged into the crowds of people around her. Like waves they beat upon each other, not caring what or who was in the way. In the midst of this hustle and bustle of downtown city-life, Cassie felt tiny. Her job as a marketing advisor at a small-scale business didn't really help either. She was nothing, she felt, in the grand scheme of things. She had nothing to contribute to society, she told herself time after time.
It was cold-- the way she thought, the air she breathed in as she walked briskly upon the sidewalk. No, everyone was cold. Eye-contact was inexistent on the streets; eyes never locked upon one another. It was like everyone was afraid... of everyone. Afraid of meeting someone different, unusual, out of the ordinary.

Yet, Cassie thought, in this way, hardly anyone here is different.