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"What if it’s his?"

"Then she’ll get help"

I kept walking Tina opened her classroo scent of clay, paint, and cleaners I had gotten so accustomed to the antiseptic medicinal smell of my room that only when I went somewhere else did I remember that the rest of the world was still out there with its variety of sights, sounds, and s h, just the lingering heaviness in e I should probably go back to the rooo houre this out

"Tina, as your worstthat it hen Finn died, or when Gavin left, or when I got kicked out of school, but then these things keep happening And I think there is still so worse"

She unlocked a drawer and began pulling out boxes ofactually wasn’t the worst That was peaceful And the hospital after I cut my wrists was bad, but the crap was all spread out then No one part stood out I had soh school" She held the boxes against her chest "I got called ‘Baby Killer’ because no one knehat had happened"

"Oh my God, Tina!"

She spread the boxes across the surface of the table "Not a fab time of uess if I had to pick a ot home from the hospital, after they stitched me up, and I realized I had no one My boyfriend had ditched me My parents were totally freaked and couldn’t even look at nant teens since, you know, my baby was dead"

She drew lazy circles across the table with her fingers "So yeah, it alking intoI was completely on my own"

"I’ve had that moment," I said "Twice" My head felt heavy and I rested it in one Then when I had to pack up et in ot to San Diego, I didn’t even have a reservation at a hotel"

"Starting over is hard But it’s sort of freeing too, isn’t it? No ties No history You can be whoever you want to be"

"But you’re still the same old you, underneath"

"True" Tina reached to one end of the table for a stack of construction-paper packages She dragged the top one in front of her and tore open the plastic wrap "I never could et away from myself"

"Whatever happened to that boy, the baby’s father?"

"Beats es off"

"So you didn’t feel any connection to him?"