Oh, great – group work. I hated relying on someone besides myself for grades. He asked us to raise our hand when our names were called. I hoped it would be Candace. “ Heath Gibson,” the Dr. Samuels said. No hands shot up. “Heath Gibson,” he said. Mr. Mysterious’s hand doggedly went up. “Selena Appleton.” I nearly choked on the water I swallowed. I raised my hand. I looked back at Heath. His eyes were back on his phone. Candace gave me an elbow nudge and smiled at me. “You. Lucky. Cunt-basket.” She shook her head as the professor continued reading off names. As the desks emptied when the clock struck 9:50am, I managed to catch Heath before he walked out of the door to exchange information about the project. “Hi, I’m Selena.” I extended my hand to him. He looked me up and down, then nodded up as if to say hello. I pulled my hand back and brushed my hair away from my forehead. “Maybe we should get each other’s phone number so we can plan a time to go over things.” He remained tight lipped and faintly nodded. “Sooo. Oookay. My number is 489-783-2341.” He still said nothing. “Aren’t you going to give me yours?” “ 489-920-1390,” he said. His voice was throaty and craggy. Man of few words, I guess “ Okay, so I guess I’ll text you a time to meet up.” He nodded up and down, turned around and left. That was interesting. Not at all how I thought that would go. Candace strolled up beside me. “So how’d it go?” “ Weird.” “ Weird?” “ He didn’t say much.” “ He’s probably hung over,” she said shrugging her shoulders. Maybe, but I wasn’t here for boys anyways, I was here to put the past behind me. A week later Bright lights. Icy road. Car swerving. Jenni and I signing along to the radio. SUV swerving into my lane. Too late to swerve. Loud crash of metal twisting together. Hot steel scraping my tender flesh. Intense white light. No sound. White light. “ Good Morning!” I screamed. I sat up in my bed, my blue night shirt drenched with sweat. My fist gripped the bed sheet. Veins protruded on my hands from clenching so tightly. My lungs expanded rapidly and my lips were twitching. I reached up and felt the fleshy scar on my right cheek. The green neon digits on the alarm clock read 3:47am. First night terror in months. Dad wasn’t there to hold me. For the first time, I was alone. Waking up screaming in the middle of the night was my life everyday six months after the accident. Sometimes my nightmares were different, but the end result was always the same – waking up in terror, saturated in sweat. Good morning was the first words I uttered after I awoke from my coma. Later on in the morning, Candace and I contemplated our collegiate aspirations over hardened bagels and runny omelets. She was more interested in discussing the penis size of the team’s starting middle linebacker. I was more concerned with the dining commons serving peach cobbler for dinner later on. The dining area was nearly empty. Most students had already left for the 8AM classes. Some people were eating alone which was something I hated doing. I was glad Candace was there with me. Transitioning to a new city would be difficult for me if I was alone. I got out of my seat to pour another glass of orange juice when I saw Heath sitting in the corner spooning corn flakes in his mouth. He wore a black hooded sweatshirt and headphones – closed off to the world even before noon. I wondered if he saw me. “ Don’t even think about going over there,” Candace said as I sat down. “ I texted him four times last week and he didn’t respond. And he hasn’t shown up to class since the first day. I’m not doing the project by myself.” As I walked over to his table, he looked up at me for a half a second, only his eyes moved but his head remained motionless. Be bold Selena. Be bold. I pulled up a chair and sat down. I cleared my throat. He still wouldn’t lift his gaze from