“Failure is a part of life,” my mom said. “And it’s not your job to glue someone back together.”

“Yeah. I know. I just—I thought that if I worked hard enough, did all the right things, then eventually they’d… go back to normal.” I sighed.

“It’s really beautiful how much you love Ros, how much you want to take care of them. I knew you were taking care of them, but I don’t think I realized just how much you were doing for them. How tenuous everything was. I never should have let you go on that trip.”

“I wanted to,” I said.

“I know but—it’s too much for a seventeen-year-old. It’s too much for a lot of adults. And you’re right—you’ll be away at college next year—but—it’s a big responsibility. A big change. You are not responsible for another person’s happiness, no matter how close you are.”

“Well, it’s not like it worked anyway.”

My mom sighed, tossed the stick again for the dogs.

“Celia, you love to fix things. You are one of the most resourceful people I know. I’ve never seen a problem that you can’t solve. And I’m not just talking about grades. But I think… sometimes being a good friend isn’t about trying to solve the problem. Sometimes it’s just about letting the problem be there and paying attention to what your friend is asking for. Not trying to push things on your timeline.”

“So it’s my fault,” I said.

“Throwing the pie is, yes. And you have to take accountability for that. But friendship isn’t tennis, Celia. There might be faults, but there’s no score. At least, there shouldn’t be. Friendships are complicated. When it comes to you and Ros, I clearly have no idea how complicated it is,” my mom said. “When friendships blow up, it’s really easy to get into a story about who did what to whom—they did that wrong, she did that wrong. You start keeping score. But keeping score doesn’t really get you anywhere. It certainly doesn’t move you into the future.”

“I don’t know if we have a future,” I said.

“Of course you do,” my mom said. “You just don’t know what it looks like yet.”

We stayed there until the dogs swam back to shore. They shook water all over us, found a new stick, held it between them, and moved on, tails held high.