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But this gesture…small that is be…
It’ssomething.I feel it in my bones.
An olive branch of sorts.
Locking my phone, I toss it in my bag, and throw the strap over my shoulder. I’m just about to round the corner and head upstairs, when the chatter from the other room drops suddenly.
I pause with my hand on the railing, staring straight ahead, a spark of awareness needling at the back of my mind. And I can’t help but think back on that moment in the kitchen, sharing that look with Shawn, and feeling I was on the cusp.
Of falling…
Of flying…
Years from now, when I’m old and gray, I’ll think back to this time—this very morning, this very second…
It’ll be one of several pivotal moments I’ll look back on, peppered throughout the years—spikes in my timeline—ones that forever altered the trajectory of my life.
The first one was the day my mom told me Dad was never coming back.
The second, the day I started a brand new school, and met the friends—the family—that I would carry with me for the rest of my life. People who would carryme.
And the third time…
The last time…
It was a late-night, distressed phone call, from my girlfriend’s twin brother, shattering life as I knew it into pieces that would never fit right again.
Little do I know now, that someday, over a year from now, there will be another big moment that takes us full-circle. An impossible moment. A moment that…shatters everything all over again, throwing our world once more upside down…
But we’re not there yet.
We’re here.
I’mhere…
“Holy shit,” Ivy says. And then she keeps saying it. “Holyshitholyshitholyshit.”
And then Phoebe’s squealing.
Will’s laughing—a deep, knowing chuckle.
But Shawn and Waylon…
They’re suspiciously silent.
And as if there’s a tether connecting each of them to me, I find my feet carrying me back toward the kitchen.
All five of them are gathered around the island, looking down at their phones.
“What happened?” I say, hovering in the threshold. There’s a weird sort of hollow, yet fluttery sensation filling me that reminds me of the rush I’d get from Percocet when I first started using.
I feel like I’m buzzing out of my skin, yet I’m utterly still.
Ivy looks up at me, beaming. “It’s out.”
My brows knit, and I shake my head. “What?”
It’s Waylon who turns to me first, his lips parted, cheeks pale. He looks…worried, but relieved too.He’s in shock…
