-Zade Collins:
I didn't remember falling asleep after that fight with Ben, just the sharp sting of frustration, the way my throat had felt tight with the words I couldn't say out loud — not yet, at least. I'd practically torn my room apart looking for the damn pin. I was sure I'd left it wrapped in the napkin, tucked into the silver trophy cup on my shelf. I remembered placing it there. I remembered. But now it was gone. And the paper was still there, all crumpled and lonely like a promise someone had broken.
I pulled myself up, slowly. Everything about this morning felt slow — my limbs, the light, the air. I splashed cold water on my face in the bathroom, let it sting my skin until I felt just alert enough to make it through whatever the hell today had planned for me.
By the time I got downstairs, voices were already swelling in the foyer — laughter, clinks of glass, that syrupy kind of social chatter that always meant one thing in this house: a party.
