The alarm didn't just ring; it pierced.
Aeris didn't move at first. She lay frozen under the covers, staring at the ceiling as the sunlight crawled across her floor like a slow-moving bruise. Her eyes felt heavy, shadowed by a darkness that sleep couldn't fix. It was another day—a carbon copy of the one before it, and a blueprint for the one that would follow. The same suffocation. The same gray cycle.
She dragged herself to the bathroom. The water was cold against her face, but she barely felt it. She was becoming a master of not feeling anything at all.
"Why are you up so late today, Aeris?"
The voice hit her before she even reached the kitchen. Her mother stood by the stove, the sound of a spatula scraping against a pan sounding like metal on bone. Clang. Clang. The kitchen felt small, fueled by a frantic, furious energy.
"Did you complete all your homework?" her mother yelled, not even turning around.
"Mhmm..." Aeris managed, her voice a ghost of a sound.
"What was that?" Her mother spun around, a frown etched so deeply into her face it looked permanent. "Have you forgotten how to speak to your parents? You—"
The lecture began, but Aeris practiced the art of fading. She let the words blur into a static hum, like a radio left on in another room. She didn't want to hear the disappointment or the demands anymore. She was already drowning in them.
"I meant... yes, Mom," Aeris said, forcing her lips into a thin, practiced curve. A fake smile.
"That's my girl," her mother sighed, her anger snapping back into a cold, sharp approval. "Now sit and eat. And don't smile like that too much; it'll make you soft. Don't smile around boys at all. You remember what I told you, right?"
"Yes, Mom."
The words felt like lead in her mouth. Aeris sat at the table as her father joined them, the morning air thick with expectations.
"Morning... Father," Aeris murmured.
"Morning, Aeris." He didn't look up from his coffee. "You're staying on top of your schoolwork, I assume? Don't disappoint us."
"Yes."
One word. That was all she had left. Why is that the first thing you have to say to me? she thought, her chest tightening. Not 'how are you,' or 'did you sleep?' Just 'don't disappoint us.'
She was becoming the doll they wanted—painted to perfection, hollow on the inside. She wanted to reach out, to find a friend, to be a teenager, but the walls her parents built were too high.
"I'm leaving," she said, slinging her bag over her shoulder.
"Be careful," they said in unison. The words sounded like a script, robotic and empty.
Aeris walked to school with her head down, her gaze fixed on the pavement. She didn't look at the world, and the world didn't look at her. When she reached the gates, the cherry blossom trees were in full bloom, dropping a carpet of delicate pink petals onto the concrete. To anyone else, it was beautiful. To Aeris, it was just more clutter.
She moved through the hallways like a phantom. No one greeted her. No one waved. They knew her only as the "Ice Topper"—the girl who was too perfect to be human.
The bell rang, and the first class began with the usual drone of the teacher's voice. "Class, we have a transfer student joining us today."
Aeris didn't look up. She kept her eyes locked on her textbook, her pen hovering over the page. But then, she heard the footsteps—a steady, confident rhythm that sounded different from the hurried scuffle of the other students.
"Hello, everyone. I'm... Roy Ashford. I hope I'll be having a good time with all of you."
His voice was like a low hum of cello strings—calm, charming, and impossibly warm.
Aeris looked up, just an inch.
He was standing at the front of the room, tall and effortless. He looked like he belonged in a high-society magazine, yet his black hair was a messy, rebellious tangle. A single piercing glinted in his ear, and his jawline was sharp enough to cut. But it was his eyes that stopped her breath. They were warm—piercingly so.
The girls around her gasped, whispering behind their hands, but Aeris just stared. For a split second, she felt a strange, terrifying sensation in her chest. It was like seeing a flicker of light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel.
She quickly looked away, hiding behind her hair. He's just another distraction, she told herself.
But curiosity won. She looked back, just as Roy's gaze swept the room. His eyes locked onto hers. Instead of looking away, he tilted his head slightly and smiled—a real, genuine smile that seemed to see right through her icy exterior.
The "Topper" had been seen. And for the first time in her life, Aeris felt a spark of heat.