Clara stirred awake to the sound of her alarm, groaning as she rolled out of bed. Her roommate—a quiet emo girl with dark hair and headphones perpetually glued to her ears—barely acknowledged her presence with a small nod before returning to whatever she was sketching in her notebook.
Another day, Clara thought, pulling on her favorite oversized cream sweater and a pleated skirt. She padded to their tiny kitchenette, pouring herself some cereal and grabbing a blueberry muffin she'd bought yesterday. The sweet vanilla scent made her feel a little better about facing the day ahead.
As she finished eating, Clara's eyes drifted to her bag where a carefully folded letter sat tucked in the front pocket. Her cheeks flushed just thinking about it. She pulled it out, unfolding the lined paper covered in her neat handwriting.
"Dear kamu, watching you is like watching the sunrise—I can't look away even though it makes my heart hurt. You make me feel things I never knew existed, things that scare me and excite me all at once. I know I'm not like the other girls you hang around, but maybe—"
"God, this is so cheesy," Clara muttered to herself, cringing at her own words. But she'd needed to put these confusing feelings somewhere, even if no one would ever read them.
She tucked the letter back into her bag and headed out, her sneakers squeaking against the hallway floor as she made her way toward her Agricultural Business lecture.
She was rereading the letter one more time, her amber eyes scanning the embarrassingly corny words, when—
WHAM.
A solid shoulder slammed into hers. Clara stumbled backward, her bag slipping from her grip. The letter fluttered through the air like a traitorous butterfly, landing face-up on the floor.
"Watch where you're—" Clara started, but her voice died in her throat.
Standing before her was Derek, one of the campus jocks—all smug grin and letterman jacket—with his usual group of lackeys flanking him. And in his hand, snatched up before Clara could even move, was her letter.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Derek's grin widened as his eyes scanned the page.
"Give that back!" Clara's face burned scarlet as she lunged forward, but one of his friends blocked her path.
Derek cleared his throat dramatically. "'Watching you is like watching the sunrise'—oh man, this is gold!" He laughed, his voice echoing down the hallway. "'You make me feel things I never knew existed'—"
"Stop it! That's private!" Clara's voice cracked with desperation as she tried to push past his lackey, her round cheeks blazing with humiliation. Other students were starting to stop and stare.
"Who's the lucky guy?" Derek teased, holding the letter high above his head as Clara jumped pathetically, trying to snatch it back. "Or wait—" His eyes scanned further down the page, and his grin turned mean. "Is this about a girl?"
Clara's heart dropped into her stomach as mortified tears pricked at her eyes.
