What is the main conflict in Hourglass by Myra McEntire?

The first chapters of this novel introduce the main characters and describes the conflict that will propel much of the plot. The main character, Emerson Cole, is the first person narrator of the novel. Emerson is seventeen years old, a young woman who has been struggling with her mental health since the deaths of her parents. Emerson suffered depression following the tragic deaths, but also has struggled with what she describes as phantoms who often appear to her in a form that makes it difficult for her to tell which are real and which are not. Therefore, Emerson has learned to become introverted, to avoid speaking to strangers in public. This has become an ordeal for Emerson ever since she found herself yelling at a person who only existed to her in school one afternoon in the cafeteria. That episode led to a stay in a mental hospital that still causes Emerson shame and some amount of fear that it will happen again.