Am I untrue, or is it you?

But before Ava could question it any longer, a Ding sounded from her phone.

“yo whens the next exam again??”

It was from her class’ group chat.

Ding.

“In like a month”

Ding.

“I think”

Ding. She should mute her phone.

“no they changed it now its in like 2 weeks”

What?

“WHAT”

“yea it was bc of a time limit for grading or smth”

She stopped paying attention to the text messages after that.
She would have to study again soon. Somehow, just the thought of it made her tired.

On any other day, she’d get right to it, but today didn’t really feel like ‘any other day’. Everything felt…off. Out of place. She thought so, at least.

The conversations the others were having, they seemed fake. As if it were merely characters in a game. Even the drawings on her walls, the ones she painted herself, the ones she’s watched other talented hands create, it all felt fictional.

When Ava talked with her mother, it felt like talking with lines of code, with a computer that was programmed to answer the way her mother did. A hallucination, a clone of her maybe, but not her mother.

The water tasted weird. Her reflection in the mirror was out of proportion, the whole house was. Maybe it was all only a dream.

Ava didn’t feel like doing anything that day. Maybe it was the fear of something worse happening. She barely got herself to eat breakfast. Not that it helped, now she just feels more sick than ever. Maybe the food was artificial.

It was…scary. Thinking about it was scary. Maybe her existence was scary.

No one else appeared bothered by all this, so maybe it was just her imagination.
Maybe she’s the one out of place.
Maybe the person staring back at her in the mirror was someone else.
Maybe she’s not Ava.

And maybe, just maybe, that wouldn’t be so bad.