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During the car ride ho was that if I could just hear the voice of someone who loved me, someone I hadn’t hurt, I’d be okay So I called Bailey I couldn’t remember much about the conversation, only that she said she wanted to come to Boston and I’d told her no My selfish crap wouldn’t disturb soain

Yet as I laid on the bed in my brothers’ old roooddamn lost, I could hardly breathe

I didn’t kno many times my dad knocked on the bedrooht that began to break through the curtains

It had been quiet for a while as I laid in the shadowed rooain

I was stronger than this

I could do this on my own!

A knock sounded at the door ?

?Dahlia, someone is here to see you”

I turnedespecially loud to my ears “Tell them to come back later”

“Dahlia, it’s me”

I blinked, wondering if I’d misheard

“Dahlia?”

Bailey?

I lurched out of bed, dashed across the room, and yanked open the door Bailey Hartwell stood in the doorway, my dad behind her

Relief floodedin her unconditional, unafflicted love