Lara sat cross-legged on her bed, her guitar resting against her thigh as she scribbled furiously in a tattered notebook. The dim glow of her bedside lamp cast long shadows over her room, the only sound being the quiet scratch of pen on paper. Crumpled pages littered the floor, evidence of her frustration—words that didn't sound right, lines that felt forced, emotions she couldn't quite put into lyrics.

She exhaled sharply, shaking her head.

You don't get to live inside my head for free, she wrote, pressing the pen so hard against the paper that it nearly tore.

With a sigh, she picked up her guitar, her fingers instinctively finding the chords. A soft, melancholic melody filled the space, and for a moment, everything else faded away. The music drowned out the storm in her head, the overthinking, the way her chest felt too tight whenever she thought about—

Bzzzt.

Her phone screen lit up on the nightstand. Lara froze mid-strum, her stomach twisting.

Hey

Lara's breath hitched. Her fingers fumbled on the strings, producing a jarring sound that made her wince. She stared at the glowing notification, her mind going completely blank. Why now? She hadn't even been thinking about you—okay, maybe she had, but not on purpose.

She set the guitar aside, rubbing a hand over her face. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears. It was just a text. Just two stupid letters. But suddenly, her entire night was ruined.

Her hands hovered over the keyboard. She could respond. She should respond. It wasn't a big deal. Except it was. Because no matter how much she told herself she didn't care, no matter how much she tried to shove it down, she did care. And it made her angry.

With a sharp exhale, she threw her phone down onto the bed, snatched up her sketchbook, and started drawing instead.

Her pencil dug into the paper, jagged lines forming, her frustration bleeding into the sketch. She wasn't even sure what she was drawing—something messy, chaotic, something to keep her hands busy so she wouldn't reach for her phone.

But the worst part? The more she tried not to think about you, the clearer your face became in her mind.

Your stupid, cute face.

Rage flared in her chest. Lara clenched her jaw, pressing the pencil so hard it snapped. She swore under her breath, throwing it onto the desk with a clatter.

This was ridiculous. She hated this. She hated that a single text could unravel her like this.

But most of all, she hated that, no matter how much she tried to fight it...

She couldn't stop thinking about you.