Four Years Ago
ELLIE
I watched Sully graduate on a grainy livestream with my heart in my throat.
He looked good.
Everyone told me he was good, too, when I asked.
And I asked just about everyone, trying to decide if I should call or if I should go. Did he want me there, or was he better off without me?
I’d originally said I’d only be gone until he graduated, and then I’d come back.
But that was before we both said things we couldn’t take back. Before it felt like he didn’t want anything to do with me. Before he made it clear that if I left, it would break something. Everything. In a way that I wasn’t sure could be fixed.
Sully didn’t look broken, anyway. Sully seemed whole.
Everyone said he was good.
Which was all I’d ever really wanted, right? It was half the reason I’d left.
So I stayed in Boston.
And when Natalie flew home for her brother’s graduation, I didn’t go with her.