“Who is this?” I asked, picking one up, wiping away a layer of grime from the glass. A black-and-white photo yellowed with age, it looked like a stock picture sold with frames, a happy family of three: mom and dad smiling down at a young girl with blond curls.

“Probably my mom and her parents.” She didn’t even glance over.

I examined the attic more closely. “When did you move here?”

“A few weeks ago, why?”

All the boxes were covered in dust and looked like they hadn’t been disturbed in ages. The house as a whole didn’t look like a family had just moved in. All the old boxes in the attic, all the nice furniture, perfectly placed like someone had been living there for years, not weeks.

“This was my grandparents’ house,” she explained after noticing my confusion. “My mom’s gone, so it went to me when my grandmother died.” It took a moment for that to sink in.

“Oh.” I set the photo down. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Anyway. My grandfather loved fireworks. I know they’ve got to be here somewhere.”

“Okay.” I was still unsure of what she was planning, but it didn’t bother me as long as I was with her. I helped her look through boxes, but eventually I got tired and sat on a box in my homecoming dress.

“Jackpot,” Elise said, lifting up a string of firecrackers.

• • •

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” I said when we were about to get on the highway. My palms began to sweat, my heart beat faster at the thought of seeing Cameron again. I wanted to go home.

“It’ll be cathartic,” Elise said.

“I don’t know.”

She sped up on the highway. “Look, we can turn around, I can take the next exit and we can just go home. But is that what you really want? This guy made it all about him for—how long were you together?”

“Almost a year.”

“A whole year! And then he just dumps you like that, at homecoming, and doesn’t even offer to drive you home?” She began to wave an arm around as her voice rose. “Are you just going to, what, crawl into bed and call it a night? Curl up and cry yourself to sleep, all over some asshole?”

“No?”

“Or, are you going to do something about it? Do something you never thought you could do? Do something he would never think you could do? Something no one could imagine you doing?” She was breathless in her rage.

“Okay,” I said after a moment. “Let’s do it.”

I directed her to his dorm and we parked in a loading zone. I’d been there with Cameron weeks ago, boxes of his things in the trunk of my car. I had kissed him goodbye, not wanting to let go.

“Ready?” Elise gestured grandly all around us at the buildings, the trees, the skies, twirling on the ball of one foot like a ballerina. She wasn’t just magical. She was magic itself and I was completely under her spell.