Kavya looks mortified. “Shit, now he’s totally reliving Dominic and Miguel sneaking behind his back too. I just meant for the two of you to have some sense knocked back into you. You were all so starry-eyed, and, like, horny for each other. I just wanted Sean to see firsthand that you have a life back in the Blue and you’d be leaving real people behind if you stayed up here. He needed to know you have friends, community, a whole purpose in the ocean. And you needed a reminder of where you’re from. A reminder that you’re going back. You both did.”

I can’t believe she’d meddle like this. It seems so un-human. They’re supposed to be these self-centered, narcissistic blowholes, but Kavya is going out of her way to affect my life.

“Why do you care so much?” I ask.

Kavya’s eyes dart to Coraline again, who’s been standing at the open car door this whole time. Kavya opens her mouth to speak, but her voice catches. She chews her bottom lip and fidgets with that swinging lifeguard whistle as her eyes start to glisten.

“Kavya?”

She just shakes her head, not making eye contact, doing everything she can not to let the tears spill over.

“I know why,” Coraline says. She finally shuts the door and slowly walks around the front of the car. “It’s because of me, isn’t it?”

“Mom,” Kavya whispers. She doesn’t say yes, but the pain and hurt and emotion behind that one syllable is enough of a yes for all of us.

Coraline rushes to close the distance and wraps Kavya in a hug. She cradles Kavya’s head to her chest, and it’s that motion that sends Kavya over the edge. A wave of tears cascades down her face.

“I miss you so much when you’re away,” Kavya chokes out. “Not just when you’re physically away. When you’re home and stay in your bedroom for so long, then make me take you to the club so you can stare at the ocean. You wish you hadn’t stayed here, I know it.”