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My heart pulses as the phone rings out far longer than my anxiety can handle right now. Finally, the ringing in the phone speakers cuts off, but the silence rings out in my room.

“Drew?” My voice is shaky, trying not to let her hear me crying.

I’m met with silence on the other end. Bringing the phone down from my ear, I hover over the end call button in defeat. But then I hear a muffle.

“Laine,” Drew mutters softly. I stand frozen in my room, which is still spinning.

Words cannot describe how grateful I am to hear her voice.

“Um, can you meet me at the playground?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in ten.”

The line goes silent.

11

Drew

When I get to the playground, Laine is already sitting

on one of the swings. It’s dark outside, but I could recognize her chestnut waves anywhere. She’s wearing sweatpants and a baggyoff-the-shoulder shirt, her hair straggly. My chest pounds at the sight of her, and nerves overtake my body, considering the fact that we haven’t exactly spoken to each other since the incident in the mountains.

The swing beside her is biting cold as I sit down, the chains even chillier. Neither of us says anything, and for the first time since she’s moved back, the silence is beyond awkward.

“I’m not coming back to school next semester.” Laine blurts out, fidgeting with a piece of woodchip in her hands.

“What?” My stomach sinks at the thought of losing her again when I’ve only just got her back.

“Are you moving back to California?”

“No, it’s not that…” Her eyes are plastered to the ground, increasingly watering.

“What do you mean you’re not coming back, Laine?”

“My mother is moving me to catholic school.”

The silence turns heavy as tension spreads through the air.

“Oh,” is all I can muster up.

Is this why she was so distant that last night at the cabin? Did she know all along that we would end up distanced by proximity anyway, so she just decided to do it herself early? Anger boils inside me as I think up all the possible scenarios in which she could have betrayed me.

“I’m sorry.” She whispers, but I don’t bother asking what for this time.

Despite being mad at her right now, the fear of losing her overcomes me. I rack my brain, trying to think of all the things I could say to make her stay.

At this point, I’m desperate, and if telling her what happened with my dad could possibly change her mind, then it’s worth a shot. I could show her that we really are the same, and whatevershe’s going through right now with her dad, I can relate. If I open up to her—really open up—she’d be bound to me by word, right?

“My parents were high school sweethearts. They won every couples-themed high school superlative, and people placed bets on their imminent marriage.” I start, not caring that this probably sounds completely irrelevant to her right now. “They went on to get their bachelor's degrees together, and eventually got through law school together too. They even started their own firm.”

Picking up a wood chip myself, I nervously trace infinity signs over my thigh as I tell my parents’ story.

“They were doing well financially and lived pretty happy lives together until they struggled to conceive.” My eyes glance over at Laine only to find her already looking at me, listening intensely.

“Their fertility journey was long and strenuous, but the struggle only made them stronger together. Eventually, they put in their application for international adoption, got approved within the next two years, flew to China, and adopted me.

“We were the perfect family, and everyone from their high school looked up to them as an example of how to be and praised them for being white saviors to a colored orphan. My parents ignored them, and we were happy and financially stable. Until one day, when I was about eight, maybe, my dad just up and left us. Being very young at the time, I didn’t understand what happened. I just thought he didn’t want us anymore.”