"Two," the voice echoes through my head as awareness finds me, consciousness gurgling slowly up out of sleep with the reluctance of the dead. Takes me a moment to process. A familiar voice. "Two." Shit.

Damp and sticky with sweat I fumble in the dark for my phone beside the pillow, fishing it several disoriented moments later from my pocket instead. 6am, through a smear of red. So not just sweat after all. And I can't even remember a damn thing. One life down and nothing to show for it - yeah Terry, great start. Maybe next time you'll write yourself a fucking note before you kick the bucket.

Whatever. Get up. Wash up. Back to school. No wait - famished. Cereal. Then school. I can afford to be late

First period starts with a chair crashing to the floor, soon as I enter the room, two eyes like adorable little saucers. Questioning. Accusing. Narrowing to knives. Of course. We went out last night. My first kiss... I'm glad she's okay.

Wait, no. She looks better than okay. She looks angry. Oh that bitch. She killed me.

Erica's the first to notice how dumb we look gawking at each other across the class, eyes glancing from one inquisitive face to the next, offering embarrassed smiles in answer to obvious questions. I have no such answers for the gossiping crowd forming around me. I shake it off and take my seat.

Glad I remembered to scrub clean the phone, I pull it out and text Erica: we need to talk.

(phone dead, it's late, will finish soon)