My mom called the next morning. Brief. Careful. The tone of a woman reporting on a mission she'd barely survived.
"I told him that you and Rhys care about each other and that the adults are still figuring out what that means for the family." A pause. "He asked if that meant you were boyfriend and girlfriend. I said it was complicated. He said everything is always complicated with adults and went to his room."
Thirteen years old and already tired of us.
I sat on my dorm bed for twenty minutes after she hung up, turning my phone over in my hands, building the courage to make the call I'd been avoiding since the car door closed at the red light. Sienna was at Cole's – giving me space without being asked, because that's what Sienna did now, read the room and cleared it before I had to ask.
