Kari is a compassionate girl on the geeky side with budding culinary talents. After her family had to move halfway across the country, Kari is unable to adjust in her new high school where she is an outcast. Repeatedly forced to do group assignments...
More months passed. The holidays, then Kari's birthday came and went. And then, some months later, that June, Kari, Milo, along with the rest of their class's thirteen-year journey through school had come to an end.
Ever since he first decided he hated school, Milo had looked forward to his high school graduation. He'd never be obligated to see those some-three hundred people that hated him again. It seemed to be nothing but net-positive. But as that day approached for real, he came upon a deeply frightening revelation. Graduation would not be the relief he envisioned it to be — it meant the loss of what little freedom he had for the foreseeable future. Every day would be like summer breaks have been for the past few years. And considering the only thing keeping Milo motivated to get through summer break was that it had a defined end, it did not bode well for him.
Milo tried to cope by burying his head in the sand. The worries would keep him up at night at times, but while with Kari and especially while eating, he could ignore it. Kari picked up on it — she could see that something might've been bothering Milo, but whenever she asked, he played it off like it was nothing.
But of course, ignoring didn't make the looming threat go away. After the class received their diplomas, instead of tossing his cap in the air, Milo hid somewhere and cried.
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Milo laid in bed, doing the only thing he could; waiting. Not soon enough, he heard the familiar shave-and-a-haircut knock on his window. It didn't cheer him up much, but being with Kari was better than being confined to his room alone with his thoughts. He opened the sash and helped her climb in. Then they sat beside each other on the bed while Milo dug into what Kari brought him. Kari spent that whole afternoon cooking comfort foods in an attempt to make Milo's day a little better. He'd hardly been able to leave his room since graduating a week ago, and to say he was depressed would be an understatement.
Even while eating, he was still sad. For him to still look sad while eating... this was dire. Kari tried to think of what she was supposed to say to little success. And what didn't help her think was competition with intrusive thoughts. She told herself to make a lot because thanks to his misery, Milo had been even more ravenous than usual.
...Or was she seeing that because she wanted him to eat like that, and was 'encouraging' it? He wasn't asking her to give him so much food. Although, he sure welcomed it. He'd finish it all, and he'd— wait, that could be the 'horny' talking!
All Kari managed was an empty promise that 'it'll get better', which, for the first time since greeting her when she got there, made Milo talk. He frowned and swallowed and then he burst like an atom bomb.
"You keep telling me it'll get better, it'll get better, but it won't! Nothing's gotten better in my life since you started... doing this! There's been no other improvement! And now it's worse!"
