Chapter 8Owen
Throughout the entire drive across Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to get to the eastern side of the state, I felt like I was being torn in half.
I had this bubble of anxiety growing slowly but surely under my breastbone, and I felt like someone was squeezing my whole being in a vise.
My phone rang somewhere in Indiana, and for a moment I thought it was Joey, but it was Ben instead.
“Hey, how are you doing?” he asked in his kind, patient voice.
“Not well,” I admitted, because I didn’t lie to family.
“I kind of figured. Look, in a few days, you can head back, right?”
Sighing, I rubbed my face as I kept my eyes on the road ahead. “I feel so wrong right now.”
“I know. It won’t get better before you’re back with him, Owen.”
I realized he spoke from experience. He’d had to go
