Page 108 of The Long Way Home
“I never said you were.”
She doesn’t meet my eyes. I stop moving, letting the water carry me.
She exhales. “Okay. Fine. I’m a little anxious.” Her shoulders dip under the surface, then rise again. “This is the first time I’m really going to be alone.”
“That’s just lying, Sunny.”
She frowns. “How?”
“Well, for starters,” I say, lifting one shoulder in a half-shrug, “I’m still here. I’m still going to annoy the shit out of you on my days off.”
Her mouth twitches despite herself. “That’s not comforting. That’s a threat.”
“Depends how you look at it.” I tread water, letting myself drift. “You don’t get to call it ‘being alone’ when I’m still very much in your orbit.”
She studies me. “You can’t follow me back to campus.”
“I don’t have to,” I say. “I’m annoying from a distance. Texts. Calls. Unsolicited opinions.”
She laughs, a soft sound, but it fades quickly. “It won’t be the same.”
“No,” I admit. “But different doesn’t always mean worse.”
She dips under the water briefly, like she needs the reset, then comes back up, hair slicked back, eyes more open than before. “You say that like you’re sure.”
“I am.”
She squints at me, weighing something. “What if I call you at three in the morning, complaining about my roommate?”
“You’re living alone.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Okay, I’ll answer.”
“What if I FaceTime you right after I watchRemember Meand I’m all puffy and crying?”
“I will never understand why you like that movie when you know it makes you sad.”
“Sad things can be great, too, Rhett.”
“Fine, I’ll order Cherry Coke and Oreos to your apartment,” I say without missing a beat. “The good Oreos. Not the knockoff kind.”
Her laugh breaks free, bright and surprised. “You wouldn’t.”
“I absolutely would.”
She drifts closer again, slower this time. “What if I’m annoying about it?”
“I’m prepared.”
“What if I do it every week?”
I shrug. “Then I’ll start budgeting for it.”
She watches me carefully now, like she is waiting for the punchline. When it doesn’t come, something in her expression shifts.
“You’re not joking,” she says quietly.
