Stay for Dinner

There is something about gathering around a kitchen table that makes people talk.

Having friends over, sharing a meal, pouring a drink and sitting together long after the plates have been cleared. These are the spaces where conversations can move beyond the surface.

Sometimes it is not even what someone says. It is a pause. A look across the table. A change in their body language. A friend asking, “Are you actually okay?” and knowing they are really asking.

Under the dim light of candles, surrounded by people you trust, sometimes you can let the mask slip for a moment.

For Side Quest Stories, the kitchen table represents those small openings. The conversations where someone sees through you. Where you might reveal a little more than you intended, or finally say something you have been carrying quietly.

When you are experiencing domestic violence, hiding can become part of everyday life. You become very good at pretending everything is fine, even around the people who know you best.

But every now and then, there is a moment when someone cuts through.

You open up. You tell a fragment of the truth. You feel seen.

Perhaps only for a moment, before returning home and hiding again.