Semua Bab ONE LAST TEXT: Bab 11 - Bab 20

Jordan's pov The infusion center had recliners instead of hospital beds, which somebody had probably decided made the whole thing feel less clinical, and my mom sat in hers with a blanket over her legs and an IV line taped into the back of her hand, cracking jokes at the nurse about how the chairs were nicer than anything in our actual living room."I could get used to this," she said. "Might just move in.""Don't even joke," I said, and she reached over and patted my knee like I was the one who needed comforting, which, honestly, in that moment, I probably did.The bag above her chair dripped slow and steady, and I sat there watching it for longer than was probably normal, like staring at it hard enough might make it work faster or better or somehow less than what it actually was, poison measured out carefully enough not to kill her while it tried to kill something worse."You don't have to sit here staring at me the whole time," she said. "Go get a magazine or something. I'm not go

Nate's pov I was racking weights at the campus gym when I saw Mia standing near the entrance, hovering by the water fountain like she was working up the nerve to come further in, which struck me as strange, because Mia Bennett had never once in the four years I'd known her hesitated at the edge of a room."Hey," she said, when I walked over, wiping my hands on my shorts. "Sorry, I know this is weird. I wasn't sure where else to catch you.""You could've texted.""I know. I just." She shrugged, a little sheepish. "Figured this was better in person. Some things feel weird typing out."I got that more than I wanted to admit. There was a version of every hard conversation that felt easier said out loud, where you could watch a face react instead of guessing at tone through a screen, and some version of me respected her for choosing the harder version instead of the easy one."You got a minute," she asked."Yeah. Let's walk, I need to cool down anyway."We headed out toward the quad, the

Jordan's pov My mom threw up four times before midnight, and by the third one I'd stopped counting how many times I'd knelt on that bathroom floor holding her hair back and started just doing it on instinct, my knees bruised from the tile, a cool washcloth folded in my other hand because that was the one thing that seemed to help even a little."I'm sorry," she said, for the fourth or fifth time, her voice wrecked and thin, leaning back against the tub with her eyes closed. "I hate that you have to see me like this.""Don't apologize to me. Ever. I mean it." I wrung the washcloth out again in the sink and pressed it against the back of her neck, and she leaned into it, some of the tension easing out of her shoulders. "This is what round two looks like, the doctor said it would probably be worse than round one. We knew this was coming.""Knowing doesn't make it feel better at two in the morning.""No," I admitted. "It really doesn't."I got her back into bed a little after one, propp

Mia's pov He was already there when I arrived, sitting on the far end of a bench in Reynolds Park with his elbows on his knees, staring at nothing in particular, and something about seeing him alone like that, no parking lot, no doorway, no audience of any kind, made the whole thing feel different before I'd even said hello."Hey," I said, sitting down at the other end of the bench, leaving space between us that felt intentional on both our parts."Hey." He glanced over, something guarded in his expression that softened slightly when it landed on me, or maybe I just wanted it to soften, maybe I was reading hope into something that was really just exhaustion. "You said you wanted to talk.""Yeah." I looked out at the park instead of at him, easier that way, kids on the swing set a hundred feet off, a dog chasing a ball its owner kept throwing badly. "I don't really know how to start this without it turning into another fight.""Same." He let out a breath that was almost a laugh. "I've

Eli's pov I woke up the next morning feeling something I hadn't felt in six months, and it took me a full minute lying there staring at the ceiling to actually identify it. Light. That was the word for it. Not fixed, not resolved, but light, like some weight I'd been carrying so long I'd forgotten it was optional had quietly set itself down sometime overnight without asking permission.I kept replaying the bench. Her hand in mine, the smell of my jacket still faintly on my pillow because I'd worn it home without thinking twice about it. The bonfire story, the terrible hot chocolate, the way she'd laughed, actually laughed, a sound I'd genuinely forgotten the exact shape of until I heard it again.I got to campus early for my first class, still riding some version of that lightness, and I nearly didn't see Claire coming the other direction across the quad until she called my name."Somebody's in a good mood," she said, falling into step beside me, coffee in hand as usual, though this