The ones we’d spent with Everly and the ones alone.
He’d given me something I would never forget.
Freedom when it came to my body, acceptance when it came to my heart.
But there was something that still ate at me, even more so when we were home.
That was the lie I’d fed Ford when I went in to interview.
It felt like such a miniscule part of our journey in comparison to everything that had happened between us, yet it was big enough to filter into my mind.
To dwell on the different ways I could tell him the truth.
Like I was doing now.
And I still had no idea.
“I wanna go back,” Everly said in a whiny voice. “I don’t wanna go home,” she repeated. She glanced up at me and banged her crayon hard enough that the tip broke and fell to the floor. Her meltdown was brewing as she yelled, “
