[SE] i'm right where you left me

Sohalia

Don't try to wake me up
Even if the sun really does come out tomorrow

She'd just begun to take the lantern apart when a familiar croon caught her attention; she looked up, startled, to find Boreal bounding to her side with Tal close behind. As the dragon nudged at her hand, the young Heart forced a smile for her oldest friend. "Tal!" she said, trying to sound chipper and bright. "I wasn't expecting you today! It's so good to see you." But it sounded false even to her ears, and she turned her attention to making sure she gave Boreal a good scratch.

And of course she couldn't fool Tal - he dropped to sit with her on the stoop, leaning against her shoulder companionably before informing her that she didn't look so good. Soh made a face, her gaze dropping to her lantern as she toyed with the screwdriver she held once more. She'd managed to get all of a single screw out of its hole, and she set it in a nearby pan that she'd brought outside purely to keep track of her hardware.

For a moment, she wasn't sure what to say. Of all the people she could confide in, she'd never gone to Tal about her boy troubles, though she couldn't really say why that was. "Everything's a mess," she said after a moment, frowning down at her lantern. "I mean, there's Safrin being gone and that's, y'know, not great, but then..." She sighed. "You know I was dating Jude, right? Well, we had an argument, and he wanted some space to think, but now I haven't heard from him at all since last season. Not even a letter."

A single tear trickled down her cheek, and she swiped at it angrily before returning to the lantern, using the screwdriver a bit more aggressively than was strictly necessary. "I just - would have thought - that he'd be back by now," she huffed, pulling another few screws from their holes. "But I'm just stuck here - waiting, and it's driving me mad."

Don't believe anything you say anymore
In the morn, in the morning