𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 𝑰𝑺 𝑨 𝑾𝑰𝑺𝑯 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻 𝑴𝑨𝑲𝑬𝑺

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝟑𝟕

OK! First off, hi. Been a while, I know. But before you guys read this chapter, there's something I wanted to address. Let me preface this by saying that I love you all and I am so thankful for all the love you've given this book for the past year.(you'll be getting the whole sappy 'thank you' message tomorrow for the one year anniversary of this book!) Let me preface this again by saying that I love writing. I've always loved it and I've wanted to be an author since I was nine. I definitely plan on pursuing this as a career when I'm older.

HOWEVER, it is not my career yet and I am not getting paid, so I feel like I have a little leeway to say this, because it's really just getting irritating at this point. I love writing and I love seeing you all engage with this novel. But as much as I love some of your comments, I don't love when the only comments on a chapter are at the end, begging for an update 30 minutes after the one I just posted. I don't love posts on my wall asking about the updates, and I don't love when comments are repeatedly left on my last TikTok asking about updates.

I'm 17, guys. I'm in my senior year, waiting on college acceptances and financial aid, taking dual credit courses, and I have a job where I work a decent amount of hours. I'm literally auditioning for my school's musical in an hour. I love writing, yes. But I also have a life. Right now, writing is a(very frequent)hobby for me until I can pursue it as a career. I may be an introvert, but I do still like hanging out with my friends and sometimes, I just wanna read or lay down and do nothing. I write when I have inspiration and when I have time and sometimes, I don't have a lot of either. I know you all want more of this story. I want more of this story. I have so much shit planned, it's not even funny. But I can't just hunker down behind my computer all day and crank out chapter after chapter.

I know sometimes there are long breaks and I'm so sorry. I know it's been a month. But pointing out that it's been a month when you're asking for an update will not make time go faster. It won't increase my typing speed. It won't ignite a bunch of new story ideas in my mind.

It will just annoy me. And make me write a long, dramatic ass soliloquy.

I love you all and I love the support you've given this story. But I would also love it if the first thing I saw when I opened this app wasn't a bunch of demands to update when I'm already in the middle of writing a chapter. I really love you guys and I hope you understand where I'm coming from.

If you've read all this before the chapter, thank you. <3

If you skipped everything and you just wanna get to the chapter already, valid. Have fun reading! This chapter is kind of a big one. But not bigger than the ones to come ;)

 And stan James Potter. Because why not.

~~~

The rest of that night blended together in the best way. Unless it was to read another text from Delphina, Audrey barely checked her phone. They had ordered dinner in, along with a terrifying amount of snacks, and spent the rest of the day watching movies of every imaginable genre and criticizing every move the characters made.

"Yeah, that's a smart idea." Audrey scoffed over a mouthful of candy, watching the main character run frantically around her house. "Run to the one place in the house with no escape routes when you know there's someone trying to murder you. Idiot."

Delphina snorted at her commentary, shaking her head in amusement. This was her first time watching a horror movie, and to say she was disappointed would be an understatement. It was hard to focus on the 'scary' parts when every person in the movie was so damn stupid.

The two girls were cramped together on Delphina's bed, with Delphina laying on her stomach, facing the footboard while Audrey sat against the headboard, propped up by pillows. Candy boxes and wrappers littered Delphina's bed as Audrey made enough cinematic criticisms for the both of them.