—"Give me back my lipstick, Nesta! I told you not to touch my stuff!"
—"It's mine, idiot! You stole it first!"
Kali rolled her eyes and dropped onto the bed, tossing a pillow into the air as if that could somehow silence the chaos. Lana Del Rey played softly in the background. Incense floated through the room. But even that couldn't save her from her thirteen-year-old twin sisters and their endless battles.
"Five minutes. I'm only asking for five minutes of peace!"
She got up with her usual rhythm: elegant, light, as if the noise couldn't touch her.
But it did.
More than she wanted to admit.
She opened the wardrobe and kept packing. The decision was already made. She would study Criminology in Aarush. But it wasn't just that. There was something about that apartment in the suburbs, that simple ad, that had spoken to her. As if something was calling her.
While folding a t-shirt, her gaze lingered on the postcard pinned to the wall.
A photo.
Her and her friends. Jake being the clown, Vero looking grumpy, Viki hugging everyone, and Niccolo...
His crooked smile. Always that smile.
Kali felt a small pang in her chest. She had known him since they were kids. Everyone thought they liked each other. Sometimes, even she thought so.
But she never dared.
Niccolo was too important.
She couldn't risk it.
Not now. Not after Ethan.
Ethan.
His name was a scar.
Three years trapped. Humiliated. Hurt.
At fourteen, she thought it was love.
At seventeen, she just wanted to disappear.
She left him. She made it out. But not without consequences.
That's why now she tried to distract herself.
With someone like Baxter.
Someone she wouldn't care about so much.
Someone she could leave behind if everything went wrong.
"Are you ready?" her mother called from the hallway.
"Yes!"
She slung the backpack over her shoulder and gave her room one last look: colorful lights, clippings, her organized chaos.
"Thank you, for everything. Sorry for not staying."
One of her sisters shouted from the kitchen:
"Don't forget to come visit me!"
"And don't fight with Elain or I'll lock you in the bathroom again!"
Laughter. Shouting. Noise.
Kali closed the door.
The city was waiting for her.
Her Converse shoes hit the sidewalk firmly while "Young and Beautiful" filled her ears.
Kali Gethwine was heading toward her new home.
Carrying wounds she knew how to hide.
With a smile no one would suspect.
Because that's what she did.
She shined.
Even if, deep inside, sometimes, she just wanted to burn out.