Sam walked alone to the university. Ty hadn’t come back last night, meaning it had been useless staying the night at home. At the house! He was letting himself get away with too much of this crap lately. Sooner or later, this was all going to come to a crashing end. This was his life, after all. How could it not?

But what the hell was taking Ty so long to get back? It wasn’t that he needed Ty here. He was just annoyed that he wasn’t. With a sullen expression, he moved around a slow-moving group. Because of this, his left shoulder hugged a brick wall of an old faculty building.

When he turned the corner, the world ahead of him opened up. People filled the area. It was normal to scan the crowds because all it took was one moment of carelessness to destroy his precarious world. He saw each of them. People going to their classes, meeting up and greeting each other. Innocuous figures looking to go about their everyday lives. The world was filled with these people. So why did one person have more power over him than all of them combined?

Perfect posture, expensive clothes, and the keys to a high-end sports car dangling from loose fingers brought his world to an immediate stop. A thumb ran over the soft fur of a rabbit’s foot.

Sam’s right shoulder was hit by the group he’d been passing. Distracted, they hadn’t seen his abrupt halt. There was some muttering, but none of it could reach him. They carried on, and he fell back with slow and careful steps. A ringing within his ears blocked out every other sound. He couldn’t see. Darkness overwhelmed him, but even it wasn’t enough to save him this time.

In a voice that was barely audible, he begged, “please hold me and wake me up!”

Tears fell to the ground.