Steven put his hand on his sister’s back and gave it a rub. “Everything is fucked,” he said. Steven and his mother had barely spoken in days, and he was at a loss with what to do about it. Luckily his father was on an extended business trip so he wasn’t around to notice that his wife was no longer acknowledging either of her children. For Steven, the only saving grace about Dustin’s brother dying was that it gave him a chance to worry about someone else’s problems, troubles that were far bigger than his own.

Two days after Nicholas’s memorial, Steven appeared in Anna’s bedroom doorway. He told her he was going to pick up Lolly and head downtown to Dustin’s dad’s apartment for the second day of shivah, and that she she should come, too. When they were outside Lolly’s mom’s place, Anna wondered whether Kimmie would be coming along, but Lolly came down by herself. She was dressed in a simple black Prada dress, holding two foiled bundles.

“Hey guys,” she said as she got in the backseat. “I baked Dustin’s family some banana bread. One gluten-free and one regular.”

“That’s nice of you, Lolls,” Anna said. “Kimmie didn’t want to come?”

“She said she’ll come over when she’s ready,” Lolly told them. She had tried to explain to her younger sister that being a good friend to Dustin in his time of need was far more important than the stupid stuff that had transpired between her and Anna and Vronsky. But Kimmie said that wasn’t what it was about.

Lolly was just happy that Kimmie had stopped crying all the time and that her sister had returned looking much healthier, though at the same time she was worried that Kimmie seemed to have swung too far to the other side. Lolly’s mom had told her they needed to be nonjudgmental and simply offer their unconditional support until Kimmie settled down. According to her therapist, Kimmie was working through some tricky emotional issues, and her new look and attitude were part of the process.