She pressed the frame against her chest, closing her eyes. The silence of the night wrapped around her, heavy, but her heart kept speaking to the picture like he could still hear. But then her lips twitched again, this time not from sadness but from a strange irritation bubbling up.
"You know what, Dad?" she said suddenly, pulling the frame away and staring at it again. "I'm not even okay lately. Like, I keep saying I'm fine, but I'm not. I feel like everything's just… choking me. School, people, this whole stupid new life. I don't even know what I'm doing half the time."
She let out a soft, frustrated laugh. "You would probably tell me to calm down, but I can't. I feel like I'm drowning in all this nonsense."
Her voice grew sharper as she continued, the words spilling like she'd been holding them back all along.
