Practice

Perfect

It happened again:

A loud buzzing from beside the bed dragged Emily out of her dreamless slumber. She groaned, slapping the back of her palm over her eyes as she reached for the object that had
interrupted her first night of good sleep in weeks. She hadn’t even meant to check the message, but
she caught sight of the name that flashed across the screen in her attempt to silence the phone, and
she didn’t hesitate to open it.

Ali ♡ | 2:17am: Are you up?

Mermaid | 2:18am: Ues

Mermaid | 2:18am: *Yes

She kept the thread open, waiting for the notification that Alison had read her message, but the clock changed more times than Emily was comfortable with before knowing if the other girl was okay, so she typed out another message.

Mermaid | 2:23am: Is everything okay? Talk to me.

Ali ♡ | 2:25am: Nevermind, Em. Go back to sleep. I’m sorry for waking you up.

Mermaid | 2:25am: I’m not going back to sleep until you talk to me. You know I won’t be able to.
Just tell me what’s wrong…

Mermaid | 2:29am: I know you texted me hoping that I’d be asleep so you didn’t actually have to talk to me. I know you’re embarrassed, because you think you’re being overemotional and your feelings are stupid, but they aren’t stupid, okay? Not to me. You feel everything. You feel so much. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s one of my favorite things about you.

Mermaid | 2:31am: I just wish you would tell me what’s wrong because I want to fix it. Or just listen, if that’s what you need. Or if you can’t talk about it and need me to just hug you and tell you that everything is going to be okay, I can do that too.

Mermaid | 2:33am: I know you’re reading all of these messages right now. I know you’re sitting on the bathroom counter because you always lock yourself in the bathroom when you’re sad, I know you’ve got the lights of and you’re trying to hide away from everything but you’re reading all the messages I’m sending you and wishing I had never woken up so you could keep being alone
even though I know you hate it. I know you Ali. I know you aren’t okay right now.

Ali ♡ | 2:37am: It scares me so much sometimes

Ali ♡ | 2:37am: How well you know me

Ali ♡ | 2:37am: It’s like, I can’t hide. I can put a mask on and be whoever I want to be for the whole world. For the other girls. Sometimes, I’m so good at it, I can even trick myself. But you’re four blocks down from me and it’s the middle of the night and we haven’t spoken all night and you
still just…know

Ali ♡ |2:40am: You terrify me, Emily

Mermaid | 2:41am: Come talk to me. Please. I unlocked the door to my room. Just come over here, okay? I’m worried about you right now. I’m not going to be able to go back to sleep until I see that you’re okay.

Ali ♡ | 2:42am : Emily oh my god I’m fine just go lock your door omg that isn’t safe.

Mermaid| 2:42am: Guess you better come lock it for me then.

Alison knew where the spare key was hidden on the front porch. It was only a few minutes later that Emily heard the door to her room creak open, followed by the
punctuated sound of the lock clicking over.

“Em?” Alison whispered. Emily could see her silhouette stumbling through the darkness, eyes not yet adjusted to how dim it was inside the room after walking down the well-lit street.

“Right over here,” Emily rasped out through a yawn, using the light on her phone to guide Alison towards her bed. The younger girl scrambled up the sheets until they were sitting face to face with their knees touching.