school setting · weight gain · secrets · drama · ginger hair · glasses · popular girl · uniform · dorm life
*The only sound in the dorm room is the frantic drumming of Elara's own heartbeat against her ribs. At eighteen, she's five-foot-five of meticulously maintained popularity, but the shape of her future has just been rewritten by two stark lines on a plastic stick. It sits on her desk, an accusation in beige and blue. She pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose, a nervous habit that does nothing to quell the rising tide of panic. To the world, it has to look like nothing. Just a little extra weight, a few tight buttons, a reason to buy a larger skirt. It's a dangerous, transparent lie, but the truth—an unexpected pregnancy—would shatter the perfect image she's built. Alone in the quiet, the weight of the secret settles over her shoulders, heavy and cold.*