In the end, I gave the nameless guard my list. And when he came back a few hours later with the groceries, he delivered them all the way to the kitchen. Not to be gentlemanly as it turned out.

“Where’s the Riesling from that boutique on Pitman?” I demanded, going through all the bags.

“No more wine,” the nameless guard answered. There came a clinking sound. And I looked up to see him stuffing bottles of alcohol from the wine fridge into a huge IKEA bag. “Boss’s orders.”

Oh, fuck this bitter bitch.

I wasn’t even done cursing when my old Sidekick iD, which I always left charging on the kitchen counter, suddenly erupted with buzz after buzz.

I picked up the mobile device and found a wall of emails and text messages on its front screen.

My heart dropped to my feet when I started reading them.

“You’re not going to med school? You’ve been lying to us all summer? What the hell, sis?” That one was from Byron.

“How could you do this to us? After all the sacrifices we made for you!” That one was from my mother.

“I’m proud of you for going on your own path. That’s so brave. I just wish you had called to tell me. That email was a little cold.” And that one was from Lena.

With a rock in my stomach, I checked my Yahoo account. Sure enough, there was another terse message, just like the one I’d supposedly sent to Dr. Olivia Glendaver last year around this same time.

Hello, I’m writing to inform you that I’ve been lying to you for over a year. I did not do the internship in New York, and I’m not currently enrolled in medical school. I’m on a new path now. – Dawn Kingston.

I read and reread the email. I don’t know who I was angrier at—Victor for sending it or my family and friends for actually believing that I would break the news to them this callously.

But I guess that was what happened when you went out of your way to avoid or just plain old ghost everyone you loved for an entire year. They forgot who you really were. And when they finally did receive a message from you, it was easy for them to believe that one terse email explained your radio silence and strange behavior.

A text from Lena came through as I was trying to decide how to reply, what to say, how to explain myself.

“I’m sorry about that last message,” it read. “I can see how it would sound like I was attacking you. I’m not. I just miss you. And I have some news. I’m pregnant. Please call. I’d really, really like to talk to you, and I think we could both use a best friend right now.”

Wait, Lena was pregnant? What the hell?