Chapter 6: Arrivals

I didn't go to the airport.

At two o'clock I was in a lab learning to calibrate a spectrograph.

At five I walked out of the science building with my roommate, and Ford was sitting on the steps of our dorm.

He looked like he hadn't slept.

His curls were flat on one side. His shirt was wrinkled from the plane. There were gray smudges under his eyes.

In eighteen years I had never seen him look rough.

He stood up fast and reached for my backpack, the way he'd done since sixth grade.

I stepped sideways.

His hand stopped in the air.

"Why didn't you answer?"

"I was in class."

"I texted you my flight."

"I saw."

He stared at me.

For years, whenever one of them flew anywhere, I tracked the flight.

I waited at arrivals with a water bottle and a jacket, because they always forgot one.

Ford used to say seeing me at the bottom of the escalator was how he knew he was home.

Today he'd stood alone in a strange airport for an hour, and I hadn't come.

"I've never been here. I didn't know how to get anywhere."

"Your phone has a map."

My voice came out level.

His eyes went red.

"Greer. Do you really have to talk to me like this?"

"How should I talk to you?"

He didn't have an answer.

My roommate stood three steps above us with her arms crossed, watching him.

"You want me to stay?" she said to me.

"I'm fine."

"I'll be right inside. The window's open."

She made sure Ford heard that part.

Ford took a small box out of his jacket.

The four-leaf clover bracelet.

I'd left it in my desk drawer at home with every other gift any of them ever gave me.

"I know you didn't like the design. I'll get you a different one."

"It's not the design."

"Then it's because Kenzie has one too?"

He hurried on.

"Tanner picked hers. I thought it'd be nice if you two matched. Like sisters."

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