Not wanting to cause any trouble for my best friend, I checked into a random hotel, hoping to disappear for a while. After tossing my things aside, I took a quick photo of the room and sent it to her, just to let her know I was safe. Then, I collapsed onto the bed, my body heavy with exhaustion from everything I had been through.
The weariness hit me like a wave. With my strength already drained, sleep came quickly and without effort, pulling me under.
At some point, my phone began to vibrate—over and over—but I was too deep in sleep to notice. It wasn’t until a loud crash echoed through the room, the sound of the door being forced open, that I jolted awake.
When I was jolted awake, I was still in a daze, my mind struggling to catch up with the chaos around me. I blinked, confused, as I saw Asher standing in the doorway. His face, initially panicked, softened into a strange mix of relief and frustration.
"Ingrid!" he scolded, his voice sharp. "You did this on purpose, didn’t you? It made me think you were so depressed that you wanted to take sleeping pills and—" He stopped, eyes narrowing. "Do you know how scared I was? I thought you were trying to kill yourself!"