JUNE; My brain still felt heavy even after I had spent hours in the shower letting the water cool my head. I sat at the dresser in my room, books spread out in front of me like a fortress. My eyebrows were puckered tight as I scribbled notes, flipped pages of the textbook, and the pen scratched loudly against the paper. The lamp Mariah had given me cast a warm golden glow over the pages, but I could barely focus. I didn’t know what it was, Selene’s words? Ronan’s offer to drive me home? It was really much for a day. My phone beeped somewhere deep in the sheets of my bed. I darted my eyes toward it, then I looked back to my books, ignoring the phone. My pen kept moving. Scratching consistently, lips moving softly muttering some lines from the textbook opened before me. The phone bee

