So she knew she was blocked. I wonder if she knew when she was unblocked. I’m glad I did, I write back.

The chat goes silent then, and I’m tempted to leave it. But my eye catches on that two of spades again, and I think about how hard Claire must have worked on it, how difficult it must’ve been to push herself to finish it without ever knowing if I’d even see it, let alone respond, especially when she had no way to tag me or text or call and tell me to look. It was a leap of faith, which has always been more Claire’s specialty than mine—she’d certainly be in chapel every Sunday, same as she always went to church right after our Dunkin’ trips—and maybe it’s time I take one.

I open up my contact list—Claire no longer resides in Favorites—and make the call.

She answers immediately, and the way she says “Hey, Eves” makes me feel a little like I’ve just come home.

“Hey, ClaireBear.” It just comes out. I’ve used that name so many times, I can’t help it. “Long time.”

“Yeah. Good to know you’re still alive.”

“Well, I’m in the infirmary after falling on my ankle, if that makes you feel better.” Okay, this is not the path I wanna go down. Think of the card. Think of the card. “But your art really is amazing. And you … you look really happy since I left.”

“I am,” she says simply. “I mean, not because you left. I did want to apologize to you, but I couldn’t exactly do that when you had me blocked everywhere. Our fight made me think about a lot of things, though, and stuff I wanted to change, and I started hanging out more with art kids and my cousins, and yeah, it’s been good.”

“So you didn’t become BFFs with Sierra in my absence?” I can’t help asking. “Because I kinda thought that’s what you were going for.”

There’s a pause, and then, “This is probably a stupid question, but you heard about Sierra, right?”

“I did, from my parents. They didn’t tell me much. Did you know anything about it?”

“Of course not,” she says, and I believe it. “Craig might’ve. I don’t know. But no, she and I were not friends, and I had no desire to be.”

I think of the questions that’ve plagued me for the last couple of months, about Craig and Sierra and whether they ever became a real couple, how long they lasted. Claire would know the answers to all of it. She could tell me exactly how things went down. She could fill me in on everything I’ve missed in Greentree.