An hour passed before Luke returned to the car lot. Aria made herself a place beside Robert and spent the hour listening to the three men talk. Palin spotted Aria long before Luke did. She pranced up to Aria with her tail furiously wagging. When Aria reached out for her, she flopped upside down to expose her belly and flailed with excitement in the dirt, the ground leaving her white fur dusted with ash.

Luke started jogging when he saw her. “Hey, how’ve you been?” he asked, out of breath.

“I’ve been OK, how about you?” she asked.

“Dude, that was some crazy shit. I’ve been seriously worried about you,” Luke said. It surprised Aria that Luke had even thought about her. On the streets, you could never be sure if the people you spent time with really saw you as a friend, or if common circumstances simply caused you to trespass across each other’s lives. “Hey, there’s a festival next weekend up in Portland. I got us a ride if you and Tay wanna come.” Though it bothered Taylor, “Tay” was Luke’s nickname for him.

“Oh, thanks. I kinda need to stick around here. I got a boyfriend now,” Aria said.

“Oh really? That’s great. What’s his name?” he asked.

Aria told him, but Luke had asked out of formality. He was not even listening when she said his name.

The mood between them seemed immediately colder. It was a chill that was noticeable to all of them. Wolf was the first to try to remedy it. “Hey, you had somethin’ you wanted to talk to Aria about, in’it?”

Luke took a stick and poked at the ground. What little maturity he had, drained from his appearance. “Yeah, you wanna take a walk?” Luke asked her.

Aria looked toward the rest of them as if asking permission. Anthony and Wolf, who took the social shift as a cue to start walking toward town in search of an open meal program, stood up. Anthony shook her hand warmly. Wolf, as if sensing it would be a long goodbye between them, hugged her and placed his palm over the crown of her head. Aria didn’t understand the words he said quietly under his breath, but when he placed his palm against her, he said an ancient blessing for her wellbeing. “See you around,” he said.

She turned to allow Luke to lead her wherever he had it in his mind to go. In her heart, she missed them already. It was strange to her that people could come and go so fast from her life. It was even stranger that people who came and went could leave such permanent footprints inside of her.