location: outside the on-campus apartments
date: one oh-seven, december twentieth
with: open
everything felt real, now. worse. those obituaries posted all over the campus had been the rudest possible awakening, and that bad feeling ella had had from the very beginning was only confirmed. perhaps it wasn’t official, but that thought filled her up to her throat. melanie was dead, melanie was dead, melanie was-. it was a paralyzing thought, and ella had barely been able to leave her bed since she left her apartment to get breakfast from the dining hall. now, she felt spurred into action. doing nothing only made her feel worthless, useless; she’d feel better if she did something. the question was: what?
she wrapped her scarf tightly around her neck, trying to think of what she could do. maybe she could... talk to people, but that was a terrifying concept in and of itself. it was never something ella had been particularly good at. she zipped her coat up as she left the building, cold air nipping at her collarbone. almost as soon as she looked up, she caught sight of another person, one of the other twenty-three. she shot them an uneasy, forced smile, and thought, well, here goes nothing. “hey,” she said as soon as she was close enough to be heard, cheeks quickly going pink and ignoring the signs that surrounded them. “hey, um... are you... are you doing okay?”
