Page 103 of Isolation

Rave: Not today.

Milo: Have you eaten yet?

Rave: Not that hungry tbh. Hope you are having a good day at work.

Milo: I am. How about you? I haven’t seen you in the study today.

Rave: I put a pause on the website.

Milo: Why?

Rave: I am just not feeling up to it.

Milo: Oh okay.

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Raven

I see Mia through my open bedroom door. She is charging towards my room with purpose. I get up from the bed as soon as she steps inside.

“Hey,” I gravitate towards her.

Mia doesn't respond. Instead, she closes the door and pulls me into a hug. It takes me a full second to register that Mia is hugging me.

I am so caught off guard by her sudden affection that I drop my phone on the rug.

Mia has been cloistered in Tessa’s room for weeks to make sure that Tessa doesn’t do anything drastic.

Milo finally convinced Tessa to get back on her medication. Milo and I haven’t spoken much since yesterday so I don’t know how he managed to do it, but I am sure Mia is the one who feels the biggest weight lifted off her chest.

For this celebratory milestone, we are having a family dinner. I put a dress on for the occassion and was just lying around till dinner time when Mia barged in.

I hug her back tightly. “Mia, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I have just been so worried about you,” she whispers, refusing to let me go.

I am feeling a little under the weather today so I have been lying around on the bed. But I am not sure if it deserves Mia's current reaction.

I hold her at arm's length, before bending down to grab my phone from where it dropped. “Mia, I am fine.”

“I know,” Mia says through a broken smile, but she can't keep it up. She lets out a sob which turns into full-on tears and cries.

“Mia!” I exclaim. I can't remember the last time she cried. "What's wrong?"

This has to be more than her concern over my health. Is this about college or moving out? No. Mia has no problem in that arena. She wants to leave this house. What other kinds of drama do teenagers have? Boys? This could be about her boyfriend.

“Is everything okay with Chris?” I try again when she doesn't explain.

“Yeah,” Mia slowly wipes her tears and composes herself. "This is not about him."

There is one more person I can think of. Mia used to have a crush on Brandon. She'd run up to him and tell him that she was going to marry him.

Milo's face might have been comical at the time, butthissituation is not.

“Is this about someone else then?” I nervously hint.

My stomach drops at Mia's unsure look. She was nine when she had a crush on Brandon. He is almost ten years older than her.