At 3AM

. . . Studying . . .

3AM is not the best time to be studying. Your eyes are hot and watering, your mind is fuzzy, your brain is absent, your stomach turning because it's hungry, but you refuse to feed it because it's 3AM and you're studying.

But, if you were to tell this to Lana, she would look at you and say, "actually that feeling starts around 12:56. And your feet will be to heavy to move. I've researched it."
And after she's done talking will you then noting her bloodshot eyes. They're the same colour red as the speed pills she pops when she gets up in the morning.

Lana's 3AM's are filled with textbooks, notes and highlighters so bright that she has to wear sunglasses to use them. She refuses to go to sleep at 3AM because, "it's prime study time." And sometimes when she tells you this in the middle of the day, she is fast asleep.

Even though Lana is glued to her dictionary when studying, she could t tell you the meaning of the word 'freedom'. Because when Lana is studying at 3AM, it's not her call. At 3AM her parents are still up doing work, and if she's not too she fails. (That's what she thinks—her parents think.)
"If you are not up at 3AM studying you will not make it," Lana will tell you with a big cup of coffee. "I can't get into a good school without good grades."

Lana's parents work. And when they're not working. . . Sorry that sentence wasn't making any sense because all Lana's parents do is work and they made sure to instill that in her. Lana's brother doesn't follow this, so it's on her. In fact, Lana's parents were never like this. They're only like this now because if they don't work, they don't eat.

So at 3AM they work because they have too.

At 3AM Lana does it because it's all she knows.

And on the corner of her desk, flipped over and ringing is Lana's phone. But she won't answer it because every hour she rewards herself for studying and checks her phone. But she checked it early at 2:50AM and won't look at it now until later.

Oh no.