The semester was nearly over. The weight of finals hung heavy over the campus, the last few weeks of assignments piling up like a mountain no one could climb fast enough. Ariadne barely noticed the tension in the air as she moved between classrooms, the campus library, and the coffee shop where she spent most of her free time. College life had been a blur, lectures, late-night study sessions, and the occasional chat with her roommates. She was the type who never got too close to anyone, preferring to remain on the periphery, just outside the reach of genuine friendship.
Her phone buzzed with a text from Mia, her younger sister.
"Can't wait for you to come home this weekend! I miss you! Mom's planning something special."
Ariadne rolled her eyes, not out of malice, but from the constant tug of feeling obligated to be more than what she was. Her family, especially Mia, expected her to be a role model, but it was hard to be that when she didn't even know how to connect with herself, let alone others. She glanced at the text again, softening her expression. Mia had always been the one to reach out, to try and pull Ariadne back into a world of warmth she had long since abandoned.
"I'll be home soon," Ariadne replied simply. She wasn't sure what "special" meant, but it didn't matter. She was nearing the end of her college journey, and then she could move on to the next chapter of her life...whatever that would be.
The clock on the wall showed that her class would start in fifteen minutes. Ariadne packed her things into her bag, a mix of worn notebooks and her laptop, before heading out the door of the coffee shop.
---
Later that evening, Ariadne sat in her small apartment, looking at the mountain of study materials stacked on her desk. Her last college finals were only a week away, and though she didn't admit it, she was nervous. Not for the exams themselves she had always been a good student but for the life that awaited her after graduation.
She had always kept herself busy, distracted from the larger questions of what came next. Her future felt like a story yet to be written, and part of her was afraid that, once it was, it would look just as empty as the days she spent avoiding everything that might make her feel something real.
Her phone buzzed again, this time with a call from Mia. Ariadne sighed and answered it, leaning back in her chair.
"Hey, Ari," Mia's voice came through, bright and full of excitement. "Are you going to be home for the weekend? Mom's planning a family dinner for us."
Ariadne stretched her legs out under the desk, already anticipating the usual awkwardness. "I'll be there," she said, the words coming out more quickly than she intended.
"I hope so!" Mia exclaimed. "We miss you. You know, you don't visit enough."
Ariadne glanced out the window, her gaze drifting to the horizon beyond the campus. There was something peaceful about that view, something that felt like it could give her an answer to the emptiness she felt inside. Maybe she had been pushing away the people who cared about her for too long. Maybe it was time to find a way to reconnect.
"Alright, I'll be there. You and Mom can stop trying to get me to come over," Ariadne teased lightly, a small smile tugging at her lips.
"Deal!" Mia's laugh was contagious, making Ariadne's chest tighten with a feeling she couldn't quite place.
"See you soon, Mia."
She ended the call and glanced at the clock. There was still a lot to do before the weekend. Finals weren't going to study themselves, and Ariadne wasn't the type to procrastinate. But something about the call, the thought of her family, kept tugging at her mind. She had spent so much time keeping them at arm's length, believing it was easier that way. But as the semester ended and the world around her seemed to shift, she began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the best choice after all.
Little did Ariadne know that the quiet, ordinary life she had come to expect was about to be turned upside down. The world was changing, and soon, nothing least of all her carefully constructed sense of isolation would be the same.