Ash laughed, surprised by how much she cared about him. Deep down she knew it was too good to last. Good things never did. Two weeks later, while Nate was out picking up burgers, the cops had raided Justin’s place and hauled the pervert back to jail for violating his parole and fraternizing with underage kids. Ash went into foster care, and Nate vanished onto the streets of LA.

Ash had never stopped thinking about Nate. When she could sneak away from whatever shitty foster home they’d put her in, she would return to their old neighborhood, searching everywhere they used to go, praying she would find him. Once she went to live with Becca, she was sure she’d be able to find him. Becca spent months trying to track him down, but she finally told that Ash it was no use—Nate had vanished.

Ash sometimes wondered if Nate was even real. Maybe she’d conjured him, creating someone to help her through those darkest days.

Then three months ago, just as she had finished her volunteer shift at the mission, she heard someone calling her name. Ash spun around to find a teenage boy jogging toward her. He was at least six feet tall, slender, with faded jeans, a blue polo shirt, and white sneakers.

There was something about him, an energy that radiated off of him, something kinetic and uncontained yet familiar. He was taller now, his hair longer, almost shaggy in the front. The second he reached her, Ash knew. She would never forget his blue eyes, kind smile, or the guitar slung across his chest. It was Nate. She’d finally found him.

“I can’t… I mean, I don’t believe it. It’s you,” Ash said, practically throwing herself at him. He held on to her, the two of them standing in the middle of downtown, reunited at last.

Without saying a word, they were back together. This time things were different. They weren’t little kids anymore. There was something more, a deeper connection neither one of them could explain.

That first day, Nate insisting on escorting Ash back to Silver Lake, the two of them walking the reservoir and talking for hours. When he kissed her, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. She agreed to keep their relationship a secret, knowing that it might not even last. But as the weeks passed, Ash knew that this was something real. It was important that they tell Becca so they could start thinking about their future. It wasn’t as if Nate could stay out here forever. Ash swore to herself that the next time she saw Nate they would talk about it. They would make a plan.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Ash swiveled around to find Leslie standing in the center of the subway car, glaring at her. A young mother with a baby stroller across the aisle shook her head disapprovingly and proceeded to move to the opposite end of the subway car.