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“It’s done,” I told her. “He’s gone.”
I heard her reedy exhale blow down the line.
“Did you make it hurt?” she asked after a second, surprising me.
I nodded as though she could see me. “I don’t think anyone’s suffered more.”
She hesitated a second before saying, “Good.”
Vaguely, I heard music playing in the background of the call and remembered where she was. “How was dinner? Did he take it okay?”
Even though I’d been more than a little preoccupied this week, I did read the message she sent me this morning. About how she’d decided to go against her father’s wishes and take the space at CalArts. I was so fucking proud of her. Life was too damned short. I just wished she didn’t have to learn that the hard way.
“Let’s just say I won’t be wearing Louboutin anytime in the immediate future.” She tried to laugh it off, but I could hear the stress in her voice, and I immediately wanted to go climb into the Rover, drive my ass down there, knock some sense into her father.
“What do you mean?”
“He freaked out,” she said. “We had a huge fight. He told me if I go to CalArts instead of MIT I’m cut off.”
“So, you aren’t going?”
“Fuck yes, I’m going. I told him to shove it. I’m actually packing my shit right now. Going back to Briar Hall. I figure I have until spring to figure my shit out.Get a job.”
I could practically hear the distaste in her tone.
“I can help you with money—”
“Nope. I’m going to do this myself, Aves. I just… I feel like I have to, you know? And I can do it. I know I can.”
I smiled.
“Damn right, babe. I’m so happy for you.”
“You’re coming back to the academy tomorrow, right? Say you’ll be my roomie until I have to leave? And that we’ll stay in touch even while I’m all the way down in SoCal? You’ll visit, right?”
I could hear the note of panic in her voice and laughed. “I’ll be there, I’ll be there,” I assured her. “Whenever you need me.”
A pop and fizzle sounded behind me, and I whirled to watch a firework splatter the night sky in shades of pink and green.
“They’re starting!” Grey hollered.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow,” Becca echoed. “Love you, girl.”
“Love you, too.”
I hung up and raced back to the couch, knocking into Rook and Grey, making them snort and whine as I made a space between them, Corvus reaching his arm up to rest it on my thigh as the show started in earnest.
The sky burned bright above, painting colored light over their faces. I watched them watch the fireworks, letting their warmth sink into me. Letting it chase all the ice away until there was none left, and I knew this was it.
Rook was right. Family really was who you chose, not who you were born to. And this? This was mine.
