Sublime

In my more narcissistic fantasies, I wondered if perhaps her parents might look at me as a shadow daughter.

I would be the promise she didn’t get to realize.

it was hard to understand exactly who I was mourning.

I’m wondering if perhaps the familiarity they’re sharing now is really just a relic.

It was amazing how much a person’s life could progress in seven years, if given the chance.

Her temperament was distinctly familial to me. She could be me, if I could unzip my skin and release all my fury. If Erin brought out the intellect in me (and my petty envy), Helen brought out what was raw in me.

It would mean I was necessary.

“You know, I don’t think she ever lost her shit around her white friends.” “Yeah, well,” Erin said ruefully, “we were family.”

The scales tipping toward more important moments lived among other people in other places in other rooms far away from each other.