She had made for her room, having heard her mother somewhere in the kitchen but not bothering to have a word. In fact, Lily hoped to be left alone altogether, to be invisible for a few hours...or at least until she was called down for dinner. The phone in her back pocket buzzed, and she pulled it out as she was heading upstairs. It was a message from Jared, but she didn't dare open it. Lily knew her relationship was all but over, that it was hanging on by a very fine thread threatening to snap at any moment with any minimal level of tension. But to see it coming directly from him would make it real and devastate her, and Lily couldn't handle that right there and then.

She closed the door behind her, leaning on it with all of her weight—both physical and emotional. And as if her personal life wasn't enough of a mess already, Lily also had to worry about the upcoming midterm exams. Her grades were borderline, meaning she had to do better than average to raise her GPA and get into her university of choice. Lily had dropped her extracurricular and instead signed up to get tutored. There was extra work, but at the end of the day Jared was there to cheer her up, or at least he used to be.