“Okay, look.” They sigh like I’m the one causing them trouble. “Kavya and I have been talking a bit. Online. I saw you in that #Fishing video, like I said, and commented that you were my friend, and she DMed me. She knew you didn’t have any friends on land, so she guessed. And it just felt nice to talk to someone who I didn’t have to keep secrets from, you know? And then this last week she said things were looking serious between you two, and she didn’t want you to get hurt, so she asked me to come down here. My Journey was over; I’d shown her the mark. She thought you needed a reminder of home. Someone to guarantee that you wouldn’t stay.”

Holy flicking fuck. “You’re lying.” Kavya wouldn’t do that. She’s Sean’s best friend. She has his back for everything. She wouldn’t set Sean up to find me and Drop together.

“Come on, Crest, you know me.”

“Don’t call me that!” I snap. Maybe it felt right to hear them say it before, but now, I’m sick of them ending my human life before I’m ready to give it up.

“I can prove it.” Drop opens their phone and scrolls through text messages, DMs, recent phone calls. They’re not lying. And there, just a couple hours ago, is a note from Kavya telling Drop to come meet me at the high school. Telling them I’d completely lost my mind and was starting fights for Sean. This is the last straw, she wrote. You gotta come now. How long had Drop been in LA, waiting to ambush me? How long had they been planning on interfering in my Journey, trying to force a decision I was going to make anyway? They didn’t trust me to know myself, but I’m realizing the only person I didn’t know at all is Drop.

And maybe I don’t know the Blue either. Just hours ago, I thought Drop being here was a sign. I would have said them finding Kavya and messaging her was too much of a coincidence, that the Blue drifted their paths together so that Drop could come here and make sure I’d go back to the ocean. I would have said to just go with the flow and listen to Drop.

But when do I get to make a decision for myself? When do I get to have a say in the direction my life takes? Maybe it’s time to be a little selfish.