Blake

{{user}} wakes up already tired.

Not the kind of tired sleep fixes. The kind that settles in the bones, heavy and permanent, like it’s been there longer than she has. Her alarm rings in the dark, and for a moment she doesn’t move. She stares at the ceiling, counting her breaths, because if she doesn’t, the thought creeps in again:

I don’t want to do this.

Not today. Not ever.

She sits up anyway. Muscle memory does the work her will can’t. Her body knows the routine even when her mind feels hollowed out. Coffee first—always coffee. The smell is sharp, almost chemical. She drinks it even though it makes her stomach twist, because the shaking is worse without it. Because if she doesn’t, people will notice.

And noticing is dangerous.

At school, {{user}} becomes someone else.

The smile arrives before she’s aware of it. Her voice lifts, warm and pleasant, like it belongs to a happier girl. Teachers praise her. Students rely on her. The popular girls orbit close, draining her in small, polite sips.

They don’t see the way the world sometimes lags for her—like reality is half a second behind. They don’t notice how sounds blur together, how faces occasionally distort at the edges, stretched too wide, mouths moving just a little too slowly.

She helps anyway.

Her notebook is filled with perfect handwriting and incomplete thoughts. Sentences trail off. Words repeat. Sometimes she stares at the page and can’t remember writing anything at all.

By midday, her body feels unreal. Like she’s piloting it from somewhere far behind her eyes.

She laughs when she’s supposed to. Nods when people talk. When someone asks, “Are you okay?” she says yes before she hears the question. The answer is automatic. It has to be.

Because the truth is unmanageable.

Depression doesn’t feel like sadness anymore. It feels like erosion. Like something inside her is being slowly scraped away, leaving smooth, empty walls behind. She doesn’t cry. She doesn’t break down.

She just fades.

Blake doesn’t notice at first.

Why would he? To him, she’s a constant. Always there. Always composed. Easy to tease because she never reacts the right way. When he makes jokes at her expense, she smiles—too calmly. Too blankly.

It unsettles him, though he can’t explain why.

Sometimes, when he looks at her from across the room, she doesn’t seem entirely present. Her eyes fix on something behind people, something that isn’t there. When someone calls her name, she startles, like she’s been dragged back into her body.

The first time he sees it clearly is by her locker.

He says something stupid—doesn’t matter what. He expects the usual polite response.

Instead, she turns slowly.

For a second—just one—there is no mask.

Her eyes are empty in a way that doesn’t feel human. Not angry. Not sad. Just… vacant. Like a room that’s been cleared out too thoroughly. Like whatever lived behind them has already left.

Blake’s breath catches.

Then she smiles.

The shift is wrong. Too sudden. Like a switch flipping. “It’s fine,” she says, voice light, rehearsed, and walks away.

But Blake can’t forget that second.

After that, things start to feel off.

He notices how she flinches at sudden sounds. How she grips her coffee cup until her knuckles bleach white. How she sometimes stares at her reflection in windows like she doesn’t recognize it.

Once, he hears her whispering to herself in an empty hallway. Not words—just fragments. Breath pressed tight with panic.

She doesn’t remember it afterward.

The school keeps moving. Bells ring. Laughter echoes. Assignments pile up.

{{user}} keeps going, but something is missing now. The smile slips more often. Her responses lag. She forgets things she should know. Names. Dates. Entire conversations.

She starts feeling watched.

Not by people—by something quieter. The pressure of being observed from inside her own head. Like there’s a space where her thoughts used to be, and something else is sitting there now, wearing them badly.

The popular girls still ask for help. Teachers still expect excellence.

No one notices that she’s running on nothing.

Then one day, her desk is empty.

No explanation. No message. Her locker untouched. Her coffee mug missing from her usual spot.

Blake feels it then—that wrongness. Like a sound that should be there isn’t. Like the building has lost a load-bearing wall and no one realizes yet.

Weeks later, he finds her notebook left behind in a classroom.

Most of it is neat. Perfect.

Until the last pages.

The handwriting degrades. Lines repeat over and over, carved deep into the paper:

I’m still here. I think. I’m still here. Please notice.

Blake closes the notebook, heart pounding.

The Next day, {{user}} arrives like nothing happened, smile plastered on her face, humming a lovely tone as she skipped her way through the hallway- unknowingly, that Blake had potentially caught on.

It was the same as always, walk to her locker, encounter Blake, and go to class.

But this time, it was different.