The Major Lift. Rewrite one.

Outed and Unmasked.

'IIs there any other way to say I want it all to stop without implying suicide?' thought Aurora as she lay awake in the very early hours of the morning. She had slept of course, but it had been fitful punctuated by confused, feverish dreams of yelling parents, crying siblings and thundering hearts during which actual rest was scarce. 'No, surely not' she answered her own question, turning over in bed to face her closed door. As though it was the only four centimeters of wood separating her safe space from the rest of the world. A scary, hostile, unyielding world.
A cold grey light was creeping through the window and stinging her overtired eyes. Her arm burned and ached. She had followed Chris' instructions and treated it, but she had not gone to the health centre. Instead, opting as promised to deal with it at home with about a hundred band-aids and a strip of occlusive sports tape. It was a crude job but the combination of transverse band-aids and the vertical tape was holding the skin together at least. It had long since stopped bleeding but the pain not only persisted but had worsened in the barely twenty four hours since it happened. There was a near constant sweaty sheen to her face even as she shivered under the covers. But this she thought was the least of her worries. She knew she had a fever and was also nursing a dehydration headache, but these were nothing some paracetamol and some gatorade couldn't cure. 
After several hours of staring at the door, the wall and the window in turn, she swung her legs out from under the covers and onto the floor, pushing herself up into a sitting position and then up in one fluid but ungraceful motion. For a moment, the world spun around her and she staggered, grabbing the headboard for support until the vertigo stopped. When it did, she huddled in her shirt as she searched in the relative gloom for her dressing gown so she could go to the shower.
Once she was out of the shower and had wrestled herself into the binder for the day, she put on a button up over a tank and layered a jumper and her overcoat on top of it and gathered up her things.
Guitar, two novels, university file-binder, pens, spare notebook, wallet, keys, phone, laptop and headset and packed up into a backpack before heading down stairs to the empty family area. The rest of the household was not up yet and Aurora was thankful for this. She made coffee and poured it into a travel cup before heading out the front door laden with backpack, guitar case and and headset and began the walk to campus in the crisp morning. Somewhere in the maelstrom of worry and rumination regarding the letter, her impending exodus from the closet and her university assignments, she savoured the warmth and bitter smoothness of the coffee in the travel mug.

When she got to campus, she headed straight for the music rooms in the arts building basement and sighed with relief when she found them empty. She had no classes that day but decided that aside from getting some study in she thought being in her happy place wouldn't hurt. Besides which, the deserted music rooms made a good escape from literally everyone else on campus. She didn't want to see anyone, especially not Chris or her tall friend Blake, or any of her classmates or lecturers. Aside from Chris' invasive caring attitude, Aurora was in no mood to deal with anyone. Other people would just be a bit much. As she sat down in the booth at the end of the hall in the chair by the table, she set down her case and bag and unpacked, a fevered tremor messing with her hands just enough to be noticable.

Aurora whiled away the hours until about two in the afternoon, before she noticed a fog clouding her head. She couldn't decide if this was because of whatever was making her feel cold and shivery, or it it was because she had yet to eat anything since about five pm the previous day. Even as her stomach rumbled and burned, thinking of consuming anything made it queasy. Venturing out of the room and peering left and right like a timid child breaking curfew, she was relieved to see Chris and Blake were nowhere to be seen. She didn't know where they were, having not seen either of them since the previous afternoon. As she walked up the hall, guitar case and backpack onboard, she felt her stomach begin to burn with a familiar hunger, though the thought of consuming anything made her feel queasy. She made her way to the library, reasoning that she should at least try to get some actual non-trivial work done while she was on campus. She had an essay in the works which was due in three weeks and was yet to put anything down besides an outline. So this she tried to keep in the forefront of her focus for as long as possible, before the throbbing in her left arm sapped that focus, as did the feverish shivering and headache.
"Aro! Hey dude, how are ya'?" Asked the familiar voice of Frank, one of her classmates from her right. She started as his hand brushed her shoulder and he came to sit opposite her. 'I should have put on my headset', she thought bitterly to herself as she wrestled the muscles of her face into a strained smile.
"Hey Frank. I take it you've already done your essay?" She asked, looking him in the face in a way she hoped wasn't too cold or standoffish. Frank was a nice guy, and Aurora was acutely aware of her inability to be good company for anyone today.
He was thin and weedy with brown thinning hair and round wire-rimmed spectacles. He wore a collared white shirt under a light blue vest the couler combination clashed horribly. His facial hair was growing out a little, creating a shadow effect. Aurora could see signs of sleep deprivation in his eyes and felt a stab of kinship with him despite her shagrin.
"Nah, it's stumping me actually. How are we supposed to approach it anyway?" He asked, rhetorically Aurora thought.
"In your own unique and special way doubtless" muttered Aurora, sarcastically.
"What's wrong with you, Aro? You don't look good, all respect due n' all. You're pale" he observed, his expression snapping from genital to concerned in a second. Aurora resisted the urge to snarl at him. It was true, between the relentless inner critic and the headache and the throb still raging on in her wounded arm she was wondering how it was even possible to think. And on top of that, she hated herself for even considering biting his head off for being so worried. Frank didn't deserve that.
"Fine Frank, just fine" she said, hoping that after this, he'd drop the matter. She looked up at him from her computer screen and waited, watching the cogs turn in his head. But his eyes remained trained shrewdly on her. He didn't believe her. 'Damn'.
"You have my number anyway. text me if you want. Good to see you around". He got up and left the table, much to Auroras quiet relief. She watched him go, glancing furtively back at her with narrowed eyes. This relief was quickly followed up by a simmering self -reproach at how she bemoaned his innocuous questioning. After all, he was only being kind. Maybe she'd find him in class tomorrow and apologise to him... If she happened to make it to class tomorrow that is.