I close the app and see the FaceTime button, and before I can talk myself out of it, I hit one of the ten numbers I have saved on my new phone. I lean against my headboard and hold up the phone to get a good angle.

The screen comes to life, and there’s some shuffling around, a hilarious “Dammit!” as the phone drops before the screen finally fills with Neil’s face. “Hey!” He tries to sound cool, but I can tell how happy he is to hear from me.

Okay, okay, I’ll admit that makes me excited.

“Hey!” I reply with the same silly grin on my face.

“How are things? How are you? How is your new family? And Florida?”

“The truth?” I ask.

“Always,” he replies. Seeing his face and knowing he’s in his messy bedroom at home while I’m over a thousand miles away makes me long to be back on familiar ground.

“On a scale from one to ten, negative forty-four billion.”

Neil winces. “I’m so sorry. It’s only been three days; maybe you’ll get used to it?”

Three days/stars. It feels so much longer than that. The hours are stretching out and making six months until graduation feel like an entire lifetime.

“Plus, home is just a press of a button.” He points at the screen.

That will never be enough.

“How are things back in the sprawling metropolis of Valley Falls?”

“The truth?”

“Always,” I reply with a wink.

“They completely blow. We’re all just angry and sad. Even Rob hardly talks at lunch, so you know things are bad. We all stare at the seat where you should be sitting. It’s not fair that you can just be taken from us. Like, I know she’s your birth mom and everything, but you’re not a piece of property to be passed around.” I lower the volume on the speaker so Paula doesn’t overhear. “I know you don’t want this, either. We miss you.”

“I miss you guys, too. Even Rob,” I admit.

Neil’s eyes get wide. “It’s even worse than I thought!”

We share a laugh, but then Neil’s face creases with worry. “Are they at least treating you well?”

“Yeah,” I begrudgingly admit. “I guess. Paula got me this phone and all these new clothes yesterday. I have everything I could need: clothes, food, shelter, you know, whatever that hierarchy thing is we learned last year in Ms. Fogelman’s class. But it’s too forced. They don’t feel like family.”

Neil snorts. “Sorry! But you do realize that your family dynamic here wasn’t normal, right?”

I give him a look. Yeah, clearly my life was anything but normal.