This is the story of how Cece found out her entire life was a lie. Let's back up to the beggining shall we? Cece woke up one morning and yawned, looking at her clock, she saw that it read seven AM. She was meeting her friends at the coffee shop right around the corner before school started. She looked over at her roommate to see she her bed was made, so Cece figured she had already left.

Cece hummed as she got dressed in a pink top with white frills at the bottom, and put on a black skirt that came down to her mid-thigh. She grabbed her lipstick which was a dark pink and applied it to her lips, then she grabbed her eye shadow, closing one eye as she applied light pink eye shadow, and put sparkly white eye shadow on top to make it pop! She grinned as she repeated the actions to her other eye.

She smiled at herself in the mirror and dug through her purse to find her mascara. Once she found it, she applied some to her eyelashes and smiled as she then brushed her hair and curled it. After she finished, she smiled, "there, all done." She says, putting the makeup in her purse which was red with black and gold flowers on it.

She then grabbed her backpack, phone, and keys, as she made her way out the door, locking the door to the apartment, she shared with her roommate. She made her way to her car which was a black Camry with reddish-orange flames painted on the sides of her car. She got in her car, and started the engine, smiling as it roared to life. She turned on the radio, as she put the car in drive, driving down the road, heading towards the coffee shop.

Cece and her friends always got coffee before school, it was the same routine every day. Get up at seven AM, put on her best clothes, apply her makeup, then head to the coffee shop to meet up with her friends. School didn't start till nine for her, which gave Cece and her friends plenty of time to talk and laugh. After school let out at four, she went home, changed into her work clothes, make sure her makeup looked ok, put her hair up in a bun, as she made her way to work. She worked at the same coffee shop that she went to every morning. She would work from five till about three in the morning, then went home, showered, and instantly fell asleep. She was constantly exhausted, but that's what the coffee was for. All her friends told her she needed to stop stretching herself thin, but she had no other way to pay for college. She would have to do her homework during her break at work and didn't have any free time except for that hour and a half in the morning with her friends, and the one-off day she had. College was tough, especially with her schedule, but she managed to make it work.

She pulled into the parking lot of the coffee shop and parked, turning off her engine, as she got out of her car, walking inside, looking for her friends, she finally spots them when her roommate, Zyra waved her over to where they were sitting. Cece smiled as she went to where they were sitting, and sat down beside them, putting her purse down beside her, she greeted everyone. Iris and Zyra smiled as Cece sat down.

"I went ahead and got your usual for you," Zyra says, handing Cece a caramel frappe with whip cream and extra caramel on top.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Thanks, Zyra." Cece smiled, as she sipped her coffee. She looked down to see Iris passing her a donut, but Cece shakes her head, "no thanks Iris, I'm not hungry this morning."

"Cece I haven't seen you eat in days, please just eat this donut?" Iris pleads, worrying about her friend. Iris knew Cece already stretched herself thin with college and work, and now she wasn't eating? She was already skinny enough, even if she didn't think that way, even if she did think she was fat, she wasn't. Iris had no idea how the thought of her being fat crept into her mind, but it did.

"Iris, thanks but no thanks, I'm fine, trust me." Cece lies, giving Iris a fake smile, making Iris frown.

"Whatever you say..." Iris mutters, looking down. Cece sighed, she felt bad for upsetting or worrying Iris whichever one it was, but she really didn't feel like making herself eat. She ate two days ago, she could manage to go at least another day without eating, but that's it. She has never been able to go more than three days without eating. When she ate, there was a voice in her head that yelled at her. She figured she could deal with being yelled at for one day, then enjoy the silence for the next three days.

Cece had depression and anxiety as well but hid it as best as she could. By her knowledge, not even Zyra knew about it, and they lived together. "Look, I'm not hungry right now, but I'll eat tomorrow, ok?" She says, offering her a small fake smile.

"Alright," Iris mutters, her mood slightly lifting, knowing that's better than nothing. The tension was thick as Cece got out her laptop to finish up some homework from the day before, Zyra brought out a book to read, and Iris brought out her notebook and began to draw. Time flew by and before they knew it; it was eight-thirty. Their alarms on their phones go off, and the three of them began to pack up their bags.

"I just realized Alex isn't here, where is he?" Cece asks, frowning. Alex never misses their morning coffee. Cece couldn't believe she didn't notice before, she was so caught up with the homework she had failed to complete the day before, she had completely tuned everything else out.

"He said, he needed to get to school early so he could talk to the professor about something.

"Oh, alright," Cece says, as she makes her way to her car. She hummed as she got in her car and started the engine. As she was driving towards school, she saw the sky turn a dark gray and groaned, "stupid rain." She mutters.

What Cece thought was rain, wasn't though. It was actually a rip in the space-time continuum. The wind picked up, and Cece slammed on her breaks, her eyes wide, as words appear in front of her, 'The simulation is over, please proceed through the portal.' after she read that, a portal opened up. On the other side of the portal, a man was standing there, with his arm reached out, gesturing for Cece to take his hand.

Cece blinked, and got out of her car, staring at the portal, wide-eyed. She was trembling, as her breathing begins to stagger. She grabbed onto her car to ground herself, as she tried to control her breathing. She didn't know what to do, she was scared, she didn't know what was going on.

"Come on Cece," the man says, a slight smile on his face.

"H-how do you k-know my name?" Cece asks, stuttering since her anxiety was acting up.

"I'll explain if you take my hand." The guy tells Cece. Cece shakes her head and starts to slowly back up, whimpering softly, and the man sighs, "you know Cece, I really tried to do this the easy way," he mutters, walking through the portal.

Cece's eyes widen and she blinks as the guy grabs her, putting a rag full of chloroform, and everything goes black.