He did not tell me to stop crying.

He did not say it was okay, because we both knew it wasn’t, not yet, not all the way.

He just tightened his arms and let me fall apart on a football field in a graduation gown, and stood there like a wall while I did, which is the truest thing one person can do for another, and the thing I had needed for seven months and had not, until that moment, had anyone to do it with.

Chapter 10 — How Are You Here