Lila
The future.
One stupid word, and suddenly I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
For most of high school, graduation had been this distant finish line I wanted to reach because I thought everything would magically change afterward. I’d go to college, meet new people, and somehow become a different version of myself. Maybe I’d finally stop being invisible. Maybe I’d become confident. Maybe I’d make friends who actually wanted me around.
The funny part was that graduation was getting closer, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to become somebody different anymore.
I was starting to like who I was.
That thought stayed with me all afternoon, even after I got home and found my sister stretched across the living room floor doing homework while Mom folded laundry on the couch.
“Lila,” Mom called a
