Lily sighed. "You're doing it again, Ann, aren’t you?"
"Doing what?"
"Trying to fix everyone and everything." Lily leaned against the doorframe, studying Annabelle with the sort of look thatsuggested she saw far more than Annabelle wanted her to. "You can't save them all, Annabelle."
"I'm not trying to save anyone. I'm just… helping."
"You're running yourself ragged."
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine. You're exhausted. You're anxious. And unless I'm very much mistaken, you haven't eaten a proper meal since I cooked you one."
Annabelle bristled. "I had toast this morning."
"Toast doesn't count."
"It had jam on it."
"Annabelle." Lily's voice was gentle but firm. "This isn't sustainable. The fundraiser is important, yes. But it's not worth destroying yourself over."
"I'm not destroying myself. I'm just a bit tired."
"You're more than a bit tired. You're…" Lily paused, choosing her words carefully. "You're trying to carry the weight of the entire world on your shoulders. And I'm worried that when something inevitably goes wrong, you're going to blame yourself."
Annabelle felt something twist in her chest. "Nothing's going to go wrong."
"You can't guarantee that."
"I can try."
Lily frowned. "Why don’t I take over the tickets and the seating charts and all the admin stuff?"
"No," Annabelle said quickly. "It’s almost done. And besides, you wouldn’t understand the parts that I’ve already done. There’s no point." Which was almost true.
Lily shook her head. "You can't control everything, love. No matter how hard you work, no matter how much you plan, sometimes things just… happen."
Annabelle stared at her hands. She knew Lily was right. Logically, she knew it. But there was a part of her, a deep, stubborn part, that refused to believe it.
If she just worked hard enough, planned thoroughly enough, smiled brightly enough, everything would work out fine.
It had to.
"I just need to get through the fundraiser," she said quietly. "Five more days. That's all."
Lily sighed. "And then what? You'll find something else to fix. Someone else to help. It's what you do, Annabelle. It's who you are. But you're allowed to be tired. You're allowed to ask for help. You're allowed to admit when something is too much."
"I know that," Annabelle said. Except she didn't really believe it, did she? She'd spent her whole life believing that if you just tried hard enough, if you were kind enough, if you smiled through the difficult bits, everything would work out fine in the end.
"Let me take care of some of this," Lily said softly.
"You’ve already got a job."
"So do you," pointed out Lily.
Annabelle bit her lip. "The fundraiser is in five days," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I just need to get through the next five days, and then everything will be… it'll be fine. It will."
Lily looked like she wanted to say more, but instead she came over, pulling Annabelle into a brief, tight hug.
