My: Best Friend's Ts Sister 2 !exclusive!

"Did I hurt anyone?" she asked.

So I stayed. Because you don’t abandon people who once held your hand in the dark. Mid-August. A Tuesday. The air was so thick with humidity you could taste it. Marcus texted me: Come over. Now.

"You were," Marcus said, not turning around. I think he was afraid to look at her.

"I didn’t mean to. I was looking for a pen." She set the photo on the counter. "You wrote ‘October 3: Lena laughed.’ You made it sound like a rare bird sighting."

Last week, Lena came over to my house for the first time in over a year. She sat on my bedroom floor, looked at my old band posters, and said, "I used to want to die every single day. Now it’s only some days. That’s not a victory speech. But it’s the truth."

I started keeping a notebook. Not a diary — a log. October 3: Lena laughed at a meme. October 17: Lena showered without being asked. November 2: Lena called me by my actual name instead of "you." I wanted proof that small good things still happened. I needed to believe they added up to something.