Stephanies perspective-
A cloak of humiliation wrapped around me like a suffocating fog, the weight of last night's fiasco threatening to crush me. With a dread that pulsed through my every vein, I prayed to every deity I could think of that it hadn't reached my father's ears. Taking a hesitant breath, I reached out through the tendrils of my mind, seeking the solace of Linda's thoughts, praying she had somehow missed witnessing my disgrace.
With a vulnerability cracking my mental voice, I pleaded, "Linda, I... Can we talk? I could really use a friend right now. Maybe in my room?"
The pause that followed stretched into an agonizing eternity until her voice, tinged with an awkwardness that only amplified my anxiety, filtered through the connection. "Oh, sweetie, I'd love to, but...um, it
