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PART ONE

1

MIA

POUND

Smile Pretend you’re fine

Pound

Focus You got this

Pound

Don’t think about it

Pound

Stop being a baby You’ve been here before

“Mia, are you okay?” The voice is fa fro tunnel

I open my eyes, not even aware I’d closed them I force a smile My traitorous hand drops from its spot at my temple

“I’ fine Fine is nor your head split open with an invisible ax Logically, it was just a headache Plenty of people get headaches

Pound

Screw you, I silently cursed at my head

It responded with another pound

“Headache?” My boyfriend, Luke, asked the obvious

“It’s no big deal,” I lied again

My recurring headaches started the day inning I got thenore and other times they weren’t

Pound

This one happened to be an insistent bastard I knehat that meant I’d been here before Time was short

“I already know the answer, but do you wantup in front ofaway the severity of the headache I’d never shared the origins of ered theht on because I studied too hard “Nah, that’s okay I’ll be fine once I take ibuprofen,” I lied, ignoring the intense pain behind ulfbut darkness Most days I could feel the truly bad ones approaching and could prepare, but today’s headache had snuck up on me