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"This way," she murmurs when I round the vehicle

She doesn’t takeas she clile softly in the quiet night as she unlocks the door

A ly yellow-and-pink-patterned wallpaper, and in the center sits a square wood table surrounded by four chairs The appliances look old, but they’re clearly in working order because dirty pots and pans are strewn atop the stove burners

Sabrina blanches at the ets to clean up after herself," she says without lance around the cramped space "It’s just the two of you here?"

"No My stepfather lives here too" She doesn’t elaborate, and I don’t ask for details "Don’t worry, though Friday is poker night--he usually stays out and then stumbles home sometime around noon the next day And Nana takes an Aht before bed She sleeps like the dead"

I wasn’t worried, but I get the feeling she’s not trying to reassure me, but herself

"My room’s this way" She ducks into the corridor before I can say a word

I trail after her, noting how narrow the hall is, how dirty the carpet is, how there aren’t any fa on the walls My heart starts to ache, because the droop of Sabrina’s shoulders tellsher look so defeated I want to tell her about the peeling paint in our place down in Texas, about how for the entirety of high school I slept in the tiniest rooer bedroom for her in-home hair salon that supplements the incoh I’ her lead here

Her rooe The double bed is perfectly made with a pale blue comforter Her desk is immaculate, overloaded with neatly stacked textbooks It s addictively fes it off, and drapes it over the desk chair

My mouth waters She’d thrown a T-shirt over the skimpy bra that constitutes a work "uniform," but she’s still in those little shorts And the heels Jesus fuck, those heels

"So," she starts

I unzip my jacket "So," I echo

Her dark eyes track the movement of my hands as I toss the jacket aside Then she shakes her head abruptly, as if trying to snap herself out of…checking rin

"I et involved," she says

"I know you did That’s why I haven’t called" I wander over to the desk, scanning the titles of her textbooks, all gazillion of them

There’s a small cork bulletin board on the wall, with pictures tacked on it I sirls The one on the left has bright red hair and she’s sticking out her tongue while squeezing Sabrina’s butt in an exaggerated fashion The one on the right has long, thin braids, and she’s s a kiss on Sabrina’s cheek They obviously adore her, and I feel a spark of approval knowing there are at least two people out there who have her back

"My girls," Sabrina explains, coht "That’s Hope--" She points to the left "And Carin They’re els sent froaze travels over the other pictures before landing on a white piece of paper with the Harvard emblem in the corner "Holy shit," I breathe "Is that what I think it is?"