“I suspect we’d both start failing our psych evals,” I agree. I run my hand over this box filled with women doing impossible things. “And there are good things about Earth, too.”

Ben. Brownies. Hannah’s playlists. Nate’s ridiculous T-shirts. My new baby sister.

I don’t want to see Rebecca. I don’t know how holding Pearl will affect Nah. And I don’t have a lot of time to help with the fallout, if there is any. We graduated three days ago, and I only have a few weeks before I head to Annapolis for Plebe Summer. She seems to be doing okay, but you never know. You just never know.

“I’m fine,” Nah says.

“Are you reading my MIND?”

“Yes. I always read your mind.” She spins the globe and we watch it go round and round. “Obviously I don’t want to see Rebecca. And yesterday was … intense. But I really am okay.”

Nah took a walk on the beach with Micah last night. I don’t know what they said, but when she came back to our hotel room, she seemed lighter.

“Are you and Micah friends now?”

“No, but we’re good. I was so mad at him for not coming to the clinic with me that day. But when we actually talked about it, I realized he’d been just as confused and sad and scared as me. He just didn’t know how to say any of that at the time.” Nah sighs. “And it sucks, I guess, that I couldn’t see that. I assumed it was because he didn’t give a shit. It’s so hard for guys. They’re not allowed to cry, always told to man up.”

“It fucks with their serenity.”

I am enjoying the occasional curse these days. It’s good to expand your vocabulary.

“Yeah. Drew and Ben and Nate—they’re lucky. They’re in touch with that yin side of them. They’re not afraid to own their feminine energy.”

I rest my hand on my chin, thinking. “I never thought about it that way. It’s an evolutionary advantage, that’s for sure.”

“How so?”

I smile. “Well, Drew got the girl, didn’t he? For a little while, anyway.”

They broke up, and that was a good decision. But she still wears that necklace Drew gave her.

Nah reaches toward the globe and traces her finger over Boston. “For a little while, yes, he did.”

I spread my palm across the Atlantic. We are holding the world in our hands.

“You know, if the fighter pilot thing doesn’t work out, there’s always submarines.”

Nah stares at me. “After what happened … you would literally live under the ocean?”