Desiree hadn’t left her dorm room in days.

The world outside had become too cruel, too loud, too heavy to face. The laughter, the whispers, the phones held up behind her back, she could still hear them echoing in her head every time she tried to close her eyes.

So she stopped trying.

The curtains stayed drawn, shutting out the sunlight and the world beyond. Empty snack wrappers cluttered her desk, her textbooks lay open but untouched, and the faint hum of her phone vibrating on the nightstand ...