Nine

Stella Lockheed

The room felt like it was closing in on me, and my palms were damp with sweat as I clung to the hardcover of my Twilight book. Being seated next to Vampire Boy – Adrian – was an anxiety-inducing nightmare. Nervous energy coursed through every fiber of my being, leaving me unable to concentrate on anything else. My heart galloped as if it wanted to escape the confines of my chest, and a tingling sensation danced along my skin, making me shudder.

I put on a show of being engrossed in the book, my eyes skimming over the text on the page, but it might as well have been a jumbled mess of letters. My fingers trembled as I awkwardly turned the pages, struggling to maintain even a semblance of normalcy. It was like I'd forgotten how to hold a book, how to read, how ……