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Tell your Mom I said THANK YOU. I can’t wait to hear your voice.
It rains here all the time, and we’re in the city. There are no rivers or forests for me to get lost in, which means Ifeellost. I’m panicking, Brooks. How do I survive two years of this?
Address below. Henley x
“Mom!” I yell, scribbling down the address and running from my room. “I have the address. Let’s go.”
HENLEY
AGE 17
Derrick washedhis hands of me as soon as he realized I wasn’t hisbiologicalchild. At first, I was angry, but only because he was my ticket home. I was counting on him to fight for me as he’d done all my life—even if it was in the wrong way. But he didn’t. Not even a little bit.
I begged. I cried. In the end, he just stopped taking my calls. A man who I thought was my father was now nothing more than a stranger. One who couldn’t get away from me soon enough.
It all just proved my point, though. In the end, I was a commodity, and I became worthless to him the moment he couldn’t use me to barter.
The only good thing to happen from all this is I don’t have to hear them arguing anymore. The fighting, the hate, it just disappeared overnight. A snap of the fingers and all their animosity lives only as a memory and a reminder of the clusterfuck that is my life.
It’s just Mom and me now. . . and her douchecanoe of a boyfriend she has us living with. I have more quiet than I know what to do with. A complete one-eighty when I was only searching for a middle ground.
I don’t miss Lake Geneva. Not in a way I long for. I miss Brooks, and I miss my forest. But that’s about it.
There’s no forest for me to escape to here. The city is boxed in quite heavily. But I’ve learned how to remain alone in a crowd. It may have taken me nearly twelve months, but I did. I searched hard enough, and I found my place.
My secret spot is now the Thames River bus. I sit in the back where I can see the water and the sky. There’s no dirt under my feet or the damp smell of the forest in my nostrils, but it rains here a lot, so I’ve come to love the smell of the rain. The scent of the droplets when they hit the ground; like a freshly cut core into the earth. I’ve learned to welcome the tears of the sky on my skin.
School isn’t much different here in regards to school-aged politics. I keep my distance from it all, as I’ve always done. I’m just sad I don’t have Brooks or Addy. Initially, I stayed away from everyone for fear I’d just be uprooted once again in the blink of an eye. Why get close to people when you’re just going to leave them? By the time I realized I was here to stay, I’d solidified my place as the quiet loner.
Brooks and I call one another every week. That’s my agreement with Jacinta. I keep the peace, and she keeps the phone stocked with enough minutes to call my best friend.
“Taking any photos?”
“Yeah,” he murmurs down the line. “Council let me shoot some of the town for their website.”
“What?” I smile down the line. “Brooks, that’s amazing.”
He groans in discomfort at the praise. “I think it helps that Gran holds some sway in town.”
“How is she doing?”
A sigh. “Not great. She spent a few days in the hospital this week. She’s getting sick more and more often. I know it sounds morbid, but we’re grateful we got this amount of time with her, you know? We moved back with the expectation that she’d pass soon after. She’s been going strong for eighteen months so far. It’s been nice.”
“Still,” I sympathize.
“Yeah.”
“Last year of school.” I change the subject. “Prom planning must be in full swing.”
He barks out an unimpressed laugh. “Oh, yeah, I’m running point on organization.”
“Smart-ass. Have you got a date?”
The soft sound of him clearing his throat sounds distinctly down the line. “Evelyn asked me.”
“Aren’t you supposed to ask her?”
“She obviously got tired of waiting.”
