[LENA]
I lay awake in my bed, staring up at the faint orange light dancing on the dark canopy of my bed from the flickering lamp on my bedside table.
I couldn't sleep. The knowledge that I had to wake up early tomorrow for the ceremony made it harder to force myself to sleep. I was emotionally depleted, yet my mind kept replaying the chain of events from several hours ago. It all happened so fast.
I was optimistically happy at the start of the day until late afternoon when I said my goodbyes to Luca, and then it went downhill from there. Not like a rock gently rolling down a slope, but like a stone being thrown over a cliff, rapidly plummeting to the deep sea below, and still, it sank until finally hitting the gloomy sea bed of nothingness.
I was that stone, submerged in a sea of guilt, sadness, and hopelessness.
