Talia groaned as sunlight stabbed through the blinds. Her head throbbed, her stomach protested, and the faint scent of spilled drinks and perfume lingered in the tiny dorm room.
She rolled onto her side, squinting at the jumble of Stella's sketchbooks, half-empty coffee mugs, and discarded clothes.
"Never again," she muttered, but her voice was already drowned by the memory of last night.
It had started innocently — a small welcome party for freshmen, music spilling into the streets, laughter echoing off brick walls. Stella had dragged her along, insisting she needed to meet people, make friends, live a little.
By midnight, the dorm common room had become a chaotic kaleidoscope of lights, music, and bodies.
Talia had been swept into the swirl, laughing, dancing, and forgetting, for a moment, the relentless whispers of her past.
She remembered Felix from high school showing up — a flash of familiar mischief in the crowd — and the warm, steady hand of a new face, a junior named Aria, guiding her to the balcony when the party got too loud.
She could still feel the electric hum of the city beneath her feet, the dizzying glow of neon signs reflecting in puddles from last night's rain.
Now, in the morning, reality hit like a cold splash of water.
Her phone buzzed too many notifications: messages from Stella checking if she was alive, Aria texting a joke about last night, even a few new friend requests from people she barely remembered meeting.
Talia sat up, rubbing her temples. She could still hear the music thumping faintly in her ears, the ghost of laughter echoing through the hallways. She felt simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated — a strange cocktail of freedom and anxiety.
"City life," she whispered to herself. "It's not like high school. The stakes are different. The people are different. I'm… different."
She glanced at herself in the mirror. Eyes red, hair a mess, a faint smile tugging at her lips. Despite the hangover, despite the chaos, she felt alive.
"Tomorrow," she promised, "I'll figure out how to survive this city. How to navigate college, parties, and… me."
And maybe, just maybe, she'd find a way to leave the ghosts of Willowridge behind — even if only for a little while.