When we break apart, I position myself in the crook of Ollie’s arm, where it’s warm and familiar. He shifts his gaze across the courtyard, pulling the collar of his coat up in a way that tugs at my heartstrings and makes me, for just a minute, wonder what it would have been like, what it could have been like, had we not been best friends since third grade. Had we met somehow differently, under other circumstances. Had Levi never come to Darkwood.

“Walk down with you to the lake?” Ollie smiles.

I nod and accept his hand, and we start down the path that will lead us to Theodora’s memorial.

• • •

The memorial is everything it should be. Mostly the Similars talk, and Pru, Ollie, and I listen, as they share stories of Theodora as a child, and how she loved drawing. I think back to the first time I ever really noticed her. How lovely her handwriting was. It’s such a tiny detail, barely anything. The truth is that I wish I’d known her better, and now I’ll never have that chance.

Tessa asks the Similars for permission to speak. She talks about the first two weeks of the summer before last, when Theodora first arrived at her home on Central Park West, and how thrilled she was to finally have someone to confide in. Someone who would understand her. Someone who could be her confidante, the sister she’d always wanted but thought she’d never have. “I understand now why she did it,” she says. “Why she uncovered my dad’s crimes. Even my mother understands. So I guess what I really want to say is, I’m sorry, Pru, that you got caught in the middle of my breakdown. That’s all.”

After the memorial, we scatter. Some of us go back to the dorms, others go to walk along the beach. Everyone’s talking about graduation next month, and colleges. We already knew Madison would be heading to Stanford after this gap year campaigning for her mom. Pru and Pippa modestly tell the others that they’re Harvard-bound, which makes me happy. Ollie and Ansel are both heading to NYU, where Archer goes, though Ansel wouldn’t be caught dead in the drama department and plans to study history and anthropology. Even Jake’s heading off to UCLA to play soccer. Tessa will join the first years at Dartmouth.

My friends walk back up to campus, but I turn the other way, toward the water. I’m standing on the shore of the lake when someone calls my name. I turn to see Levi there, the moonlight glinting off his too-long hair, and now, in the glow of the evening, my pulse quickens to what feels like a possibly fatal rate. He is here. I am home.