“Oh, definitely. I can tell. You don’t look like you’re about to vomit or anything.” Imogen nodded.

“Exactly. I feel stupendous. I regret nothing about this. I feel fine.” Daniella nodded right back.

“Just as long as you’re fine.” Imogen nodded again. She figured Daniella would crack any moment now. When she didn’t, Imogen just said, “Danny.”

Daniella put her face in her hands. “I really can’t do this. I can’t.”

“You mean you won’t,” said Imogen.

“No. I can’t. I can’t even post on my account that I’m going to be performing. I’m just. I’m going to choke. I can feel myself choking.”

“So decide you won’t choke.”

“That’s not how it works,” said Daniella in a huff. Her words were a little muffled because her head was still down.

“I just watched a very small girl decide that an entire line of people would quiet down for her and they did.” Imogen waited for Daniella’s rebuttal to that.

Daniella’s head snapped up. “I am not Rinn Olivera, and I am not going to The Secret my way through my life.”

“No,” said Imogen. “But I think believing in yourself a little bit couldn’t hurt.”

Daniella looked away for a minute. “I believe in myself.”

Imogen raised an eyebrow because Daniella was never one to back off from a challenge. “Then act like it. Tell people who you are and where you’ll be.”

“It’s not that easy,” said Daniella.

“I don’t think I said it was easy.” Imogen had never thought that.

“You said to just do it,” said Daniella.

Imogen shook her head. “Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. I mean, I think I just realized that I’ve been depressed for the past, well, while. And, like, all the treatments for it are dead simple. They’re not easy, though. They actually feel really complicated and difficult. It’s just, they sound easy when someone tells them to me. Then I feel even worse. Anyway, don’t do that. Don’t feel even worse. Just do the thing. Don’t avoid the thing.”

“Wow,” said Daniella. Then she pointed to herself and then back at Imogen. “Pot. Kettle. Et cetera.”

Imogen stared at Daniella—stunned at her own self for a moment. “Wow, truly. You really do give the advice you need to hear, don’t you? I mean, I can hear myself on this one, and the irony is unmistakable.”

“That’s okay,” said Daniella. “I think it’s advice I needed to hear, too.”

Imogen nodded. “Just get up there and read your beautiful, ridiculous poetry. You love your own poetry, right?”

Daniella shrugged. “Sometimes.”

That Imogen understood. “Then maybe try to channel that sometimes.”