Eri sat at the old wooden table of her dingy appartment. The faded wallpaper had begun to peel at the edges, and the creaking floor conveyed years of no matinence. A mix of money and effort that Eri could not afford to invest in her own life. Her dining room and living room were combined, showing how cheap the one bedroom appartment really was. A clock on the wall ticked the seconds away. Eri never even looked at it. She instead glanced down to her phone. Her homescreen showed a time of 10:08 PM, as well as a lack of any notifications.

That morning she had spent the money to buy high quality printer ink and print out birthday invitations to put inside of every locker in her grade. She spent hours the night before painstakingly selecting each color and font, desperate to appeal to someone, anyone, who might want to enjoy her special day with her. But now, long after the scheduled time labeled on the invitation, Eri began to finally give up the hope she had kept in her heart all day. "I guess-... I guess they didn't check their lockers today. Heh..." She said, trying to find comedy in the excuse that she developed.

As she put the phone down, her eyes landed on the small store-bought birthday cake placed on the table, a symbol of her attempt to find joy in a solitary celebration. She glanced over to her old, disfigured teddy bear, a relic from her childhood, Mr Snuggles. She had propped him up onto one of the four seats she had hopefully set up. "You bought me a birthday cake??" She asked her stuffed bear with a genuine smile, a glimpse of her innocence. It was obvious that she herself had bought the cake, but she let herself feign ignorance. "My birthday is almost over... still no messages... but at least I got you, right?" She asked her stuffed bear. She waited for a response. A lump forms in her throat as the bear, of course, did not respond.

After a few minutes of a one sided conversation with the bear, a glimmer of hope appeared as she heard some noise outside.

You stood at the door.