Her sleep was filled with nightmares from the events of that day. Tobi getting killed was just the cherry on top of the worst day of her life.

The dream started with the events of the morning. She was in a rush to get out the door, the bus leaving in 3 minutes. Evelyn had unluckily slept through her alarm. She was dressed, and had her backpack slung over her shoulder, but she hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. She hurriedly slammed a ceramic bowl down on the counter, grabbed the bag of Cheerios, dumped them in, and sloppily poured milk on top. Milk and Cheerios were splattered all over the counter, and some even had gotten on her favorite cat sweater that she was wearing. She swore under her breath.

“Whatever,” she angrily muttered. She shoveled the food in her mouth, and slurped down the rest. Not even bothering to clean up her mess, she practically threw the bowl in the sink as she ran out the door. She hastily took her earbuds out from her pocket and untangled them as she jogged to her stop that was at least half a mile from her house. Her short white skirt and ballet flats were not made for this kind of exercise.

She barely arrived in time, sweating like she just ran a marathon, and panting like it too. Her bus was pulling towards the front of her gated neighborhood, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She reached into her backpack’s front pocket to pull out her phone, tiredly plodding to the ugly yellow vehicle. Her hands were so slick that when she went to plug in her earbuds, it slipped out of her grip and landed face down on the concrete. She quickly bent down to pick it up, inwardly praying that it was fine. She lifted it up delicately, and felt herself calm down when she saw that the back was in perfect condition. When she flipped it over, her heart sank. It was cracked, the fracture starting at the bottom left of her screen and zig-zagging across the rest like a spider-web.

“Noooo! @#%$! Why?” she hissed. Evelyn gingerly held the shattered device in her hand and walked over to board the bus. A few kids who had seen what happened snickered at her once she got on. A simple menacing glare made them shut their mouths, and soon the bus was back to its normal overwhelming volume. She shuffled to the back of the bus and tossed her bag down onto an old, torn blue seat. Flopping down, she shoved her bangs out of her caramel eyes and bitterly crossed her legs. At least when she plugged her earbuds in, the sound still worked. She could still use her phone; she just had to be careful not to slice her finger open.

Her dream jumped to later that day, while she was sitting in the cafeteria with her only friend, Lily. Lily was trying to strike up conversation, and failing miserably as usual. Evelyn didn’t know why they were still friends. Maybe it was because Lily was the only kid who had been brave enough in their third grade class to go up and talk to Evelyn. Lily hadn’t been afraid to speak her mind, and she had looked at situations in the same way as Evelyn.

Evelyn had always been bad at making friends. She had always wanted them, but when she felt nervous or scared, her instinct was to insult or degrade someone. In fact, her natural response to someone was to be rude to them. That led to a lot of missed opportunities and after-school detentions. But even though Evelyn had called Lily a “gross troll,” Lily had responded with a classy “doodie head,” and they became inseparable. They used to be best friends in elementary school, but when middle school came around, hanging out with Evelyn had seemed to become a chore to Lily.

Evelyn’s rude instincts hadn’t changed over time, and she still was bad at making friends. Lily however, had become a social butterfly, with more friends than she could count, and a perpetually optimistic attitude. The polar opposite of Evelyn. And Evelyn despised it. Lily had been her only friend. It was them against the world. Now, she was left in the dust for more ‘normal’ people. Evelyn finally tuned into Lily’s babbling.

“So how was your morning? Mine was great! When I woke up, Jeremy had texted me, asking if I wanted to go out on Saturday and–”

“Bad. My morning was bad,” Evelyn interrupted, angrily taking a bite of her peanut butter sandwich.

Lily looked unnerved, but she continued, plastering a smile on her face. “Oh really? That stinks! What happened?” she paused, waiting for an answer.

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” Evelyn grumbled.

Lily sighed through her nose. “Well why not?” Lily persisted.

Evelyn rolled her eyes. “ ‘Cuz I don’t want to talk right now,” she retorted, frustrated.

Lily blew a strand of her long mahogany hair out of her face. “That’s nothing new…” Lily mumbled in response.

Evelyn picked up on the insult and became defensive. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she countered.

It was Lily’s turn to roll her eyes. “You always say that. You never talk to me anymore. Every time I try to start up a conversation you shut me down.”

Evelyn shook her head. “That’s not true.”

Lily narrowed her eyes at her.

“Okay, well mostly untrue. You’re just all, ‘Jeremy this’ and ‘Jeremy that.”

Lily’s cheeks flared at the mention of her crush’s name. “Bull!”

Evelyn raised her eyebrows, questioning Lily.

“Seriously. That’s bull. I just bring him up when you won’t talk. Which is pretty often.”

Evelyn shrugged nonchalantly. “Whatever. Why don’t you just go run and chat it up with him instead of me? I’m sure he’ll actually care about what you have to say,” Evelyn insulted.

Lily tensed up, but she decided to not let Evelyn get on her nerves. She was having a good day. She would not let Evelyn get underneath her skin.

That was until she heard Evelyn mutter, “Stupid little optimistic, passive aggressive–”

Lily interrupted Evelyn’s dig, whipping around to face the cause of her anger. “What did you just call me?”

Evelyn froze and slowly turned to Lily. “A happy person who needs to learn how to handle her emotions better!” Evelyn gave her a big smile, and Lily wanted to slap her so hard that it would fly across the room.

She took a big breath. “You know what? I’m done with you and your crap. You’re pessimistic, rude, you always get in trouble,” Lily ranted, ticking Evelyn’s flaws off one by one, “and you aren’t any fun to be around anymore!” she shouted, standing up and snatching her lunch tray from the table.

Evelyn looked up at her, eyes wide, and full of regret. Calmly, she rose to her feet, and crossed her arms to stop them from shaking.

“Why? Where’s all this coming from?” Evelyn knew they didn’t get along, knew that this was a long time coming, knew this was for the best. But Lily was her only friend, and no matter how poorly she treated her, she didn’t want to lose her. She suddenly wished she could take back all the hurtful things she’d said over the years.

“ ‘Why? Where’s this coming from?’ ” Lily mimicked in a nasally voice, “This is coming from all the times when you weren’t there for me, and were a total jerk! I’ve finally had enough! This is the breaking point! I’m done!” Lily grabbed her backpack and flung it over her shoulder, storming over to her beloved Jeremy.

Evelyn stood there for a second, stunned, before she swiftly sat down and tried to hide her burning cheeks. It stung. The things that Lily had said were true. Evelyn was a terrible person and a terrible friend. She had lost her appetite, and buried her head in her folded arms for the rest of the period. She never felt like she fit in anywhere.

Her dream jumped yet again to later that day. With Tobi’s crippled body, the thud of the car tires rolling over him, the crunch of his bones, and the fire, blazing through the carving in the tree. An overwhelming sense of fear enveloped her, and she tried to run, but her feet were stuck to the ground in her backyard. Then she woke up.