“I don’t need to. I already know.” Karina felt her whole body quivering. “I’m so excited. Thanks, Micah.”

Everything was falling into alignment. In the past weeks, since the warning letter about her scholarship and Thanksgiving, the importance of college had receded further in her mind. The Sanctuary was a place where she could live amongst people she respected, who respected her. Whom she could trust, even if she drank too much tequila. Who didn’t promise love one moment, then take it away. Forget about doing analysis or reading policy statements or breeding plants in a lab or writing papers to save the earth. She could actually do it every day, as she lived.

Karina informed her academic adviser that she would be taking the next semester off to earn money, an excuse he readily accepted. Her current term grades would put her on probation for her scholarship, but she would have a year to re-enroll and complete her graduation requirements. She gave her landlord notice she would be vacating and began packing up her belongings. She asked her manager at NatMark if she could work more shifts, feeding him the same story she’d told her academic adviser. She told Stephanie, Claire and a few other friends that she was studying abroad for the next semester, returning to Ecuador. She wanted to cut off ties completely, wanted them to stop calling and inviting her to do things.

It was remarkably easy to pull all this off, because no one knew her very well at college, other than James. One of the appeals of leaving the bubble of the UCSB campus entirely, of traversing twenty miles and a world away to Rancho Paraiso, was that she would never have to see him or Yoga Girl again. It was easy, too, because Karina realized she was quite a good liar. She had become so practiced at holding back truths about herself, offering lies of omission. Telling her mother she and Prem had spent the entire time after school doing homework, but neglecting to mention that Prem did his in front of the TV while she got some privacy in her room. Telling the counselor she had no feelings about Prem she wanted to discuss. Telling the rest of the world, friends and neighbors and teachers and her father: Yes, she was fine. No, there was nothing they could do. Omission. Omission. Lie. Lie. Lies.

So, now she could do it again one last time: tell a story people were willing to hear. And the people who should have known her best, Mom and Dad? To them, she would say nothing, at least not right now. They knew she was busy and couldn’t come home as often. As long as she maintained regular communication, they’d have no reason to suspect a thing. Once she was settled and happy in her new life, she could tell them more. Karina headed home for winter break, excited about what waited on the other side of it.