She smiled bitterly at him, tears in her eyes.

Don’t forget to bang the door when you go, he said.

Why?

That’s how people make it final.

Then can you stand at the window and watch me leave?

Why?

As if you still care.

She banged the door. He switched on TV and grinned. Freedom.

Alice blinked away a deceitful tear and closed her laptop.
An e-mail. Just an e-mail.
She curled up in her bed.
Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out. In. Out.
It can’t be true, she thought.
But it was. She opened the laptop. Read again.
“…liked your manuscript… ready to discuss…”
It was real. She smiled.

Watching the city of her childhood dreams disappear from sight as the bus speeded towards the Unknown Amy realized that she did not belong to that place anymore.
The city had treated her as a stranger and she was running away now to never come back, effacing the painful memories and leaving her innocence behind.