My phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. It skittered across the nightstand like it was alive, the screen lighting up with notification after notification until the room glowed with a sickly, frantic light. I pressed my pillow over my head, pretending for a few seconds that if I ignored it, the world outside would stop spinning. But it didn’t. Each vibration seemed louder than the last, drilling into my skull until my chest ached with the dread of what I already knew.

Still, I couldn’t not ...