Almost There

- 21 -

Tess tossed her backpack onto her bed. She had some time before 5, when she could text Miguel. She noticed her mom had brought in a laundry basket of clean, folded clothes for her, so she spent some time putting her laundry away and then took the empty basket back to the laundry room.

When she got back to her room, Tess sat on the bed and opened up her social media accounts just to see what was going on. It was always a weird experience checking Facebook now that she'd moved away from home. She didn't have many friends in Virginia yet—she had, in fact, only friended Rebecca so far, not even Jacqui yet—and so most of her news feed was made up of photos and updates from her old Minnesotan friends.

After the accident, Tess had taken a leave from school, and most of her acquaintances had not made much of an effort to keep in touch. Even some of Tess's friends had distanced themselves from her, and Willow, Tess's best friend of all, had proven not to be very supportive, brushing off Tess's struggles with anxiety and depression. They hadn't broken up, exactly, but they had grown apart, and every interaction with Willow had left Tess feeling a nameless longing for something she knew she'd no longer be able to find in their friendship.

She scrolled down her feed, looking at photos of Gemma and Carey from choir class, selfies of Brittany and Britney and Bree, a rant about algebra from Ashton, and dog pictures from Devin.

Then, Tess's heart stopped. She'd scrolled across some pictures of Willow and a brunette girl, both of them in adorable bikinis. The post was captioned BIRTHDAY POOL PARTY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BESTIE ELEANDRA LOVE U GIRL!!!

Seeing all those beautiful people living their lives in a world Tess had left behind was surreal. She didn't exactly miss them, but she missed belonging to them. She'd always been shy, but they had been her people, her community...and now they weren't. Even Willow had moved on to crown a new best friend without ever saying a word to Tess.

It was weird, and it was depressing. Tess stared for a while at Willow's pretty, smiling face. Then, on impulse, she searched for Jacqui's name. When she came across a profile image of a pair of purple Converse sneakers, she knew she'd found the right Jacqui. She sent a friend request. After the request was successfully sent, she felt a little better.

Tess thought of friending Isaac, too, but creeping on his Facebook would probably consume a lot of time—time she didn't have. She promised herself that she'd request to friend him later when she had time to browse through his photos and posts and learn more about him. She set her phone aside and searched her backpack for her Lit assignment: a Puritan sermon from her text book, which was a brief departure from Hawthorne.

After what felt like hours, Clarette's voice broke into Tess's studies. "Everything all right in here, honey?"

Looking up, Tess sighed. "I feel like I'm being punished," she said, holding up her heavy literature textbook. "'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.' This is torture."

"Yikes." Clarette walked in and sat down beside Tess, peering over her shoulder to read for a few moments. "Yikes again. Just be glad we aren't Puritans. Need anything?"

"I was just about to come get some lemonade."

"I'll bring you some. You keep working. Do you want the fan on? It's warm in here."

Tess smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Mom. Hey, Ms. Keene gave me the tutor's number today. I'm gonna text him at 5:00."

Tess's mom glanced at her wrist watch—she was one of the few people Tess knew who still wore one—and raised her eyebrows. "Then you better text him, Tess. It's 5:07."

"Wow. I was just so absorbed in this riveting promise of eternal damnation," Tess muttered, pushing her book away.

Clarette raised a brow. "Amusing, honey, but please never let me hear you say anything like that to your grandmother. She's on heart medication." On her way out, Clarette flipped the switch that turned on the ceiling fan, and a cooling breeze began to waft through the room.