After she left, we sat in silence for a long time before Mo spoke.

“We’ve got rent covered through the fall. That’s when it goes up, but we don’t have to re-sign the lease. We can move out if we want.”

“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” said Mom. “We don’t know what kind of shape this place is in, if it’s even livable. And the commute? Thinking about it makes my head hurt.”

“Mom, you spend two hours in traffic tryna get to Home Depot and it’s, like, four miles from here.” I wasn’t sure how any of this was going to work, but my family needed me to be okay with this. Leaving Brooklyn wasn’t something I wanted to do. It was my home. But if we went to Rhinebeck, if this estate was something we could work with, my parents would be less stressed and I could get away. I could start over where nobody knew who I was or what I could do.

“What about your friends?” Mom asked. “And school?”

“You mean Gabby and Marlon? The friends I never see because I weird them out?” A knot grew in my throat. I swallowed it, trying to push away the ache. “And the classes that I’m barely passing because I can’t focus. I’m scared to death I’ll lose control and hurt somebody. All I wanna do when I’m not there is go to the park and grow—” I caught myself before I gave too much away. “There’s nothing here that I don’t mind leaving behind for a while. As long as I got you two, I’m good.”

“I knew something wasn’t right with your friends, baby,” Mom said gently. “Y’all used to be together all the time but I haven’t seen Gabby or Marlon or anybody else around lately. I don’t even hear you talk about them. At least not the way you used to. I just thought it was because y’all are growing up, focused on school, maybe growing apart. But it’s more than that, isn’t it?”

I nodded, biting back tears.

She held my hand tight. “Maybe getting out of here for the summer will do us some good. Let’s see what all this is about and go from there. Okay, baby?”

I rested my head on her shoulder. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Mo clapped her hands together, scaring the crap out of me and Mom. “Let’s pack up and leave in a few days,” she said. “I can commute a few times during the week to help Jake. All the billing is online anyway. We can make this work for us. This might help us get back on track.”