Hugo laughs. “Okay.”
“So what happens next?”
“With us?”
“With you,” she says. “What will you do now?”
“Now?” Hugo says with a smile. “I’ve got a letter to write.”
When she wakes thenext morning, Mae forgets where she is for a second. There have been so many new rooms, so many different views over the last week. But now she’s home in her own bed, the familiar sound of the nearby train whistle coming through the window.
She reaches for her phone, her heart falling when she sees there’s still nothing from Hugo. It can only mean he’s with Margaret, and that shouldn’t bother her. After all, they’ve already said their goodbyes and gone their separate ways. But still, there’s a pit in her stomach as she stares at the screen.
How’s SF?she types out, then immediately erases it.
She tries again:I miss you.
But she deletes that too. It doesn’t seem like enough.
What she really wants to say is:You have no idea how much.
And what she really wants to know is:Do you miss me too?
There’s a knock on her bedroom door, and Mae sits up, expecting to see one of her dads, but instead it’s Priyanka who pokes her head in. Mae stares at her for a second, then immediately bursts into tears.
“Whoa, you okay?” Priyanka says, hurrying over to sit on the edge of the bed.
Mae launches herself at her friend, folding Priyanka into the world’s tightest hug. “What are you doing here?” she asks, sitting back again and wiping away the tears with her sleeve. “You’re supposed to be at school.”
“Nah,” she says. “Pretty sure I’m supposed to be here.”
She kicks off her shoes and crawls into bed, too, and they lay on their sides facing each other, the way they used to do during sleepovers when they were little. Mae thought she was done crying, but a rogue tear slides down her nose. “Can you believe she’s gone?”
“I can’t,” Priyanka says solemnly. “It hasn’t fully sunk in yet.”
“Not for me either.”
“There was nobody like her.”
Mae’s throat goes tight and she swallows hard, suddenly anxious to talk about anything else. “It feels like magic that you’re here. How are you? How’s school? How’s Alex?” But before Priyanka has a chance to answer, Mae lets out a strangled laugh. “Alex!”
“What?” Priyanka asks, giving her a funny look.
“It’s just…I’m only now realizing howbraveyou guys are.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean, you’re in love with each other, which is crazy enough,” says Mae, a little wild eyed. “But on top of that, you’re taking this huge leap by staying together in spite of all the time and distance between you. It’s totally bonkers when you think about it. But also really, really brave.”
“What happened to you on that train?” Priyanka says, laughing. “I sent you off insisting that love was like a pizza.”
“That’s the thing,” Mae says with a grin. “It turns out itis.”
Priyanka shakes her head in wonder. “What a difference a week makes.”
Afterward—once they’ve caught up more about Hugo and Alex and school and the train, once they’ve told a few stories about Nana that made them both cry, and made plans to catch up more tomorrow night—Priyanka heads home to get ready for the funeral.
Alone again, Mae walks over to her closet, riffling through until she finds a simple black dress, the only one she owns. When she pulls it out, she sees that there’s a piece of blue paper pinned to the tag, and even before she reaches for it, she knows somehow that it’s a note from her grandmother.
