I took an empty seat toward the back and leaned my head against the window, closing my eyes, for once thankful Taylor had decided to ditch early to spend time with her latest beau-du-jour. None of the other girls we hung out with rode the same bus, so I was able to think in silence. The rocking of the vehicle was soothing, almost providing a distraction from the thoughts swarming around my brain like hurricane, but all too soon, the ride was over.

I pulled up the collar of my coat and crossed my arms over my chest, beginning the walk to the apartment building I’d lived in for almost my entire life. The complex was right on the edge of the Upper East Side, so it was a little more ostentatious than other buildings in Manhattan.

I often thought it was lonely, being shut up in the apartment while my parents worked impossible business hours, but I couldn’t have been more thrilled I was going home to an empty apartment that afternoon. The familiarity of my messy bedroom and the comfy sheets on my bed had never seemed so appealing.

“Evening, Hadley,” Hanson, the doorman, said as I approached the gray glass building. “Good day at school?”

I briefly considered telling Hanson what had happened. He was a nice man, and always seemed to be genuinely interested in how my day went. But I didn’t want to say the words aloud, that one of my classmates had killed himself, because I still didn’t want to believe that it had actually happened.

“Fantastic,” I finally said as he held open the door for me.

“I remember what high school was like,” Hanson said as I passed over the threshold. “As soon as you get out of there, the world’s a much better place.”

I had my doubts, but it was nice to hear Hanson say so anyway.

I crossed the marble-tiled, fountain-decked lobby to the elevators and rode up to the seventh floor. Heading down the lavishly decorated hallway, I pulled my set of keys out of my bag and unlocked the door to 7E.

My parents had never been what you could exactly call humble.

Our apartment was filled with pristine leather furniture, cream-colored carpets, and tasteful photos of the city hanging on the walls, which complemented the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the living room and dining room. And the state-of-the-art, chrome appliance kitchen was almost another art piece in itself. My mother spent so little time here, it was amazing she’d even found the time to decorate the place to begin with.