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The confused messages came pouring in like rain and Autumn watched them drop one by one.

Jess- WTF!

Baldwin- You Up?

Luke- Jesus Aut bit weird to post now

Ashley Q- Ah lets go out

Ashley I- Hahaha omg wat happened

Half a dozen messages from other people at the school, even Larissa and Ben popped up to ask her if she was okay. But the one that stuck was Luke's because he didn't bullshit her, he just told her exactly how it was and posting such a vapid Instagram after the funeral of your friend was fucking weird.

The worst ones were from Ryan. He left half a dozen messages on all of her sites, all confused by her sudden declaration of singlehood.

"Sandy would've probably liked it ." Autumn conceded, a week after the funeral and with no other contact from The Ghost she was back in Mr Harris' office trying to talk through how she was feeling. It helped stop the thoughts from pounding on her skull.

"I just feel like an idiot."

Mr Harris- Carl- chuckled as she tried to verbalise her thoughts, she didn't feel silly as would've done a couple of weeks ago, it felt healthy to get it off her chest even if she couldn't tell him everything.

"You're allowed to be a bit of an idiot sometimes, grieving-"

"Isn't linear, I know, I know." She let out a long sigh and folded herself into the chair. He had a good sense of grief; she appreciated that he didn't roll his eyes when she explained social media or how this whole world existed.

"But maybe we can talk about what motivated you to post it, what emotions were you feeling?" Now it was her turn to laugh, an almost involuntary reaction that she swallowed immediately. What emotion was she feeling;

"Fear." She admitted, Carl leaned towards her, and she noticed the little lines underneath his eyes and the purple contrasting against his pale skin, instantly she recognised the signs of a lack of sleep. Would it be too strange to ask him if he was okay?

"Sandy's dead and I miss her so much, and I still miss my mom I don't want to ever feel like that again." She ended up lying, although not really. If The Ghost was such a threat, then getting Ryan away from her was doing him a favour.

"Cutting yourself off isn't going to make it easier in the end,"

Autumn wanted nothing more than to keep a low profile for the entirety of the fall term. But somehow she suspected that wasn't going to happen, she was still the girl with the dead mom and now the dead friend.

"Class, if we could settle down that would be great." Mr Simmons called out to the AP English class.

"You okay?" Luke mouthed as he stumbled into the class late, Mr Simmons shooting him a disapproving look from behind his gold-rimmed glasses.

Autumn sat the third row with Luke on one side, and the other was the empty seat Cassie usually took, and the one next to her was where Sandy would normally sit. Space stretched out to her side like a void.

"I'm fine," Autumn said almost reflectively smiled up at him with a tight smile, although he didn't look particularly satisfied with that answer. Even as Mr Simmons continued to talk, she could feel his eyes still trained on her.

"If we could all open our books to act 2 and we'll get to discussing what we describe as Macbeth's fatal flaw." He continued, all the girls in the class collectively perked up, Mr Simmons was the only youngish teacher in a sea of balding middle-aged dudes. It made his class one of the most coveted in the school.