Just Listen

Teenage model Annabel watches herself in a commercial in her room, comparing her past self to her current self. She cannot find “visible proof of what had happened” to her (1) and thinks no one would guess any difference between her now and five months prior when she shot the commercial for a local department store. Though Annabel doesn’t appear physically different, she hides an experience that caused her friends, including her best friend Sophie, to abandon her. Annabel hints at a major conflict: “before that night, before everything that happened with Sophie, before this long, lonely summer of secrets and silence” (2). She forces herself to leave and attend the first day of her junior year of high school.

When Annabel arrives at school, she worries about seeing Sophie and hopes they can overcome their conflict. When Sophie sees her in the parking lot, she calls Annabel a “bitch” and keeps walking. Flushed and upset, Annabel doesn’t respond and quickly enters the school.

She reflects on when she first met Sophie in sixth grade. Sophie moved to their town and followed Annabel’s oldest sister, Kirsten, around the community pool. Annabel and her closest friend, Clarke, who was adopted as a baby from China, spent their time swimming and playing cards at the pool.