She didn’t verbally agree to her father’s new plans but had nodded, which satisfied him. She didn’t say yes, because she didn’t want one of her last words to her father to be a lie. Since the moment she lost Alexia on Track 27 in Grand Central, Anna had known what she was going to do. There was no way to go on living without him, even though she knew she’d go from Anna K., rich society sex-tape girl, to a modern-day Juliet, who died for her Romeo.

She went through the motions of packing for the trip, all the while knowing that she’d never board the plane. She had hidden her intentions well, though she was nervous that Dustin may have sensed something was amiss when he had stopped by earlier to wish her farewell. When her mom came in to say good night, she hugged her and told her she loved her. Anna said it quietly back, though she couldn’t remember the last time they had said it to one another.

At midnight she got up, waking her dogs and shushing them, got dressed, and slipped out of the apartment, leaving letters for her father and Steven under her pillow. She was going to walk to Grand Central, but she was tired, and it seemed so far away, so she hailed a cab, got in and said, “Please take me to Grand Central.” The cab driver asked her where she was going so late at night, and she whispered back, “I’m meeting the boy I love there. His name is Alexia.”

When she got to Track 27, she wanted to cry. The platform was now the home of her greatest happiness and her greatest sorrow. It seemed right that they would both die in the same place, and she hoped if there was an afterlife, she would be better able to find him if they died in the same location. But her tears didn’t come, because she was surprised to see someone sitting on the bench at the end of the platform. This was not part of her plan, having to deal with some stranger on her last night on earth. Anna was too frightened to throw herself in front of a train, which seemed a bit too messy and extreme for her taste. She had googled the right dosage of sleeping pills she would need to get the job done and had gone about finding them around the house. Her mother was a troubled sleeper, so there were all sorts of medications floating about. Her plan was to take them and fall asleep on the bench, like she was waiting for her beloved’s train to come in.