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8 months later

Ella

I despise mirrors Not because I hate my reflection or that I suffer froh my façade They knoho I used to be; a loud spoken, reckless girl, who shohat she felt to the world There were no secrets with me

But now secrets define me

If a reflection revealed as on the outside, I’d be okay My long auburn hair goes ithand with heels, I’uys I know But I’m comfortable with it It’s what’s buried deep inside that frightens me because it’s broken, like a shattered mirror

I tape one of my old sketches over the mirror on the dors and obscures all of reen eyes, which are frosted with infinite pain and secrets

I pull my hair into a messy bun and placethem with my other art supplies

Lila skips into the room with a cheery smile on her face and a drink in her hand "Oh lad it’s over"

I pick up a roll of packing tape off the dresser "Oh ?"

She tips the cup at me and winks "Juice, silly I’ a break Even if it does o home" She tucks strands of her hair behind her ear and tosses ainto her purse "Have you seen my perfume?"

I point at the boxes on her bed "I think you packed theh, since you didn’t label them"

She pulls a face at me "Not all of us can be neat freaks Honestly, Ella, sometimes I think you have OCD"

I write "Art Supplies" neatly on the box and click the cap back on the sharpie "I think youit" She s me sweat" She rips some photos off her dresser mirror and throws them into an open box "I swear it’s like a hundred and ten outside"

"I think it’s actually hotter than that" I set my school work in the trash, all h School, I used to be a C student I hadn’t really planned on going to college, but life changes - people change

Lila narrows her blue eyes atto have the same dorm e come back in the fall, so unless you take all your artwork off, it’s just going to be thrown out by the next person"

They’re just a bunch of doodles; sketches of haunting eyes, black roses entwined by a bed of thorns, my name woven in an intricate pattern None of theuitar I peel that one off, careful not to tear the corners

"I’ll leave them for the next person," I say and add a smile "They’ll have a predecorated room"

"I’m sure the next person will actually want to look in the h, I don’t knohy you want to cover up the ly, El"

"It’s not about that" I stare at the drawing that captures the intensity in Micha’s eyes

Lila snatches the drawing froes a little "One day you’re going to have to tell uy is"

"He’s just so back "But we don’t talk anymore"

"What’s his name?" She stacks a box next to the door

I place the drawing into the box and seal it with a strip of tape "Why?"

She shrugs "Just wondering"

"His name is Micha" It’s the first time I’ve said his naed in lances over my shoulder as she piles the rest of her clothes into a box "There’s a lot of passion in that drawing I just don’t see hi?"

I drop , packed with my clothes, next to the door "No, we never dated"

She eyes ht?"

"No I told you ere just friends" But only because I wouldn’t let us be anything more Micha saw too much of me and it scared me too much to let him in all the way

She twists her strawberry blonde hair into a ponytail and fans her face "Micha is an interesting name I think a name really says a lot about a person" She taps her htfully "I bet he’s hot"

"Yourins, but there’s sadness in her eyes "Yeah, you’re probably right" She sighs "Will I at least get to see this mysterious Micha - who you’ve refused to speak about our whole eight ether - when I drop you off at your house?"

"I hope not," I mutter and her face sinks "I’ood note and I haven’t talked to hiust" Micha doesn’t even knohere I a over her shoulder "That sounds like a perfect story for our twelve hour road trip back home"

"Back home " My eyes widen at the eht o back home and face everyone I bailed on Especially Micha He can see through me better than a mirror