“Simon, this is my brother, Joe, and his best friend Mark. And this is my friend Bethany.” She blinked when I didn’t call her my best friend, but I didn’t care, despite all of us spending the weekend together.

Nothing felt the same. All the things that had seemed so important a week ago were laughable now. Homework? A school dance? Sophie and Dan? Mark and Lydia? It barely seemed real compared to what I was going through. My eyes were open to how hollow and fake everything was.

While Simon accepted their condolences with a nod, I kept my mouth shut. There was no point in disrupting the social...