Burial closed his eyes, breathing in through his nose.

• BURIAL: life's not been too great for me, lily.
• LILY: I'm sorry to hear that.
• BURIAL: i have a cushy job at a tech company that i hate. my girlfriend left me a month ago. i'm still reeling from my best friend dying.
• BURIAL: i've been in this city for a few years now and i still don't have any friends...
• BURIAL: ...
• BURIAL: i wouldn't be so torn up about it if it didn't feel like there was something missing from my life.
• BURIAL: it's as if i'm not in on some life-changing secret everyone else is holding out on.

Lily stroked his hair and nodded along gently as he spoke. Frost had crept up the hotel's windows, spinning icy webs across the glass.

• BURIAL: my friend, her name was agatha. she and i were going to go to the same college.
• BURIAL: but after high school she...
• BURIAL: nobody saw it coming.
• LILY: That sucks.

She laid back a little, propping herself up on the uncomfortable hotel pillows. She shifted around a bit, and looked back down at the disaster of a man whose head was in her lap.

Lily gently smiled.

• LILY: A friend of mine from work ended up jumping off a building.
• LILY: She felt similarly to you, I think...
• BURIAL: damn. i'm sorry.
• LILY: Yeah.
• BURIAL: i don't feel like killing myself, if you're worried about that.
• BURIAL: ...
• BURIAL: so...you talk to the other girls a lot?
• LILY: No, I work a desk job during the day.
• BURIAL: oh.
• LILY: Sometimes I just need a little extra cash, and this is...
• LILY: Well, it's nice enough.