Kimmie shrugs. “To give you time.” She looks straight ahead, not meeting my eyes. “I just don’t know how much time we’re supposed to give you.”

“Kimmie, I—”

“Matt, I get it,” she interrupts me. “You might think that I don’t, but I do. I get why you didn’t want to tell us about your parents, and that being away from them has been hell. I also get that you were shocked to find out that Adam has feelings for you, and that it was the last thing you needed to hear on the day he broke the news to you. What I don’t get is why you’ve pushed me away.”

“I’m sorry.” I look down at my feet. “I just… I haven’t felt like myself. I guess it feels weird to be around you, because I’m no longer the Matt you’re used to.”

“Well… I’m here for the new Matt just as much as I was there for the old one.”

“It’s not that simple,” I say under my breath. “I feel like we’ve been living in different worlds all along. I didn’t see it for the longest time, but when my parents were taken away, I started thinking about it—all the ways I’m not like you and Adam.”

“That doesn’t matter. The fact that your parents didn’t have a piece of paper doesn’t change anything.”

“It kinda does,” I say. “I mean, there’s this whole part of my life you guys knew nothing about. And it’s not just me. It’s Adam, too—I mean, he’s had feelings for me this whole time, and he’s only just telling me about it? We both had these hidden sides to us, and now that we’ve shown them… I don’t know how the three of us fit together anymore.”

I can’t think of the last time Kimmie was left speechless. I can’t remember a situation where she simply had nothing to say, but this time it happens. She walks beside me in complete silence.

“Did you always know?” I ask her. “That Adam was into me?”

“I mean, not always,” she says. “It took me a few months to figure it out. But yeah… I knew.”

“So the time I overheard you two talking about that guy Adam had a crush on—the one he found it hard to be around…”

“We were talking about you. Adam had to make something up on the spot, so he just told you he had a crush on his neighbor.”

“Why didn’t you say anything before?”