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smithereens. After all the tears left her,
she tried her best to compose herself and talked with me. That
would be the most memorable time I have with her. She was very
attentive with my needs. She showed me how a loving mom she was. We
had a mother-daughter bonding. We shopped, we played, we watched a
movie . . . She even brought me to a parlor. We had our hair cut,
our nails done, and our bodies massaged. We were happy, but it only
lasted that day. The next day, she didn’t acknowledge me. She
didn’t leave me like how my dad left me, but she left me on my own.
From that day, I didn’t feel that I have a mother, and it’s like
that until now. I don’t know if she even knows that I am already in
college, if she knows that I am living on my own. I don’t know if
she even cares. Although Papa didn’t fail to support me
financially, I still felt I am on my own. What I need is more than
what he’s giving. I need them and where are they? Not here. They
are the two best examples of the people who left me. There are
more, but I think they’re enough to let you know how I assume
people will just leave me.”
    “I understand, but let me tell you this. I’m
not your papa or your mama, Rhy. I will never leave you.”
    “Don’t say that, Grant. You don’t know the
future.”
    “You’re right, but I know me, and I know that
I will never leave you—never, Rhy. Never.”
    “Don’t you ever make that promise again.
You’ll just break it.”
    “Negative much?”
    “Positive much.”
    I know he wants to say more but restrains
himself, so we leave our conversation at that.

Chapter 4
    Grant
    “Okay, your turn,” she breaks the tension
built by our silence. “Tell me about your family.”
    “I’m from Pennsylvania. I live with Dad, Mom,
and my brother,” I answer without hesitation.
    She can’t hide the shock on her face. “You
have a brother?”
    “Yup.”
    “Younger or older?”
    “Younger. He’s what? Eight. Yeah, eight years
old,” I reply with much reverence. I miss him.
    “Really? What’s his name?”
    “Isaac.”
    “You miss him, don’t you?” She reads my
expression.
    “Yeah.”
    “What are you doing here in South Carolina,
anyway?”
    “You know why .” I’ve told her before
that I will follow her wherever she goes, and I meant it, so when
she transferred here from Michigan, I followed her.
    “You’ll stick to the I will follow you
wherever you will go drama? There must be more than that,
Grant. Come on.”
    I find her amusing because she doesn’t see
herself as enough reason for anything that I do. Okay, I’ll give
her my other reason just to satisfy her. “I want to live on
my own, to be independent, so I chose a college that’s not in our
neighborhood.”
    She nods, signaling her approval. “How’s your
family like?”
    I reminisce our happy times together. “We’re
close enough that Dad and Mom had a hard time accepting that I
wanted to leave, but they understood me, so they let me do what I
wanted.”
    “Tell me more about them—your parents first
then Isaac.”
    Her excitement is apparent and my heart
breaks a little seeing how a simple story of a family makes her
happy. “Dad and Mom love each other so much. They met when they
were sixteen. They are their each other’s first love, but they
broke up when they were twenty for a reason they didn’t share.
Anyway, they reconciled after a year or two then got married when
they were twenty-six—on their 10th year anniversary. They weren’t
able to conceive a child right away but told me that they were
still happy. They didn’t feel that they lack something or someone.
They already feel so much blessed by just having each other, but on
their 4th year of being married, they had me. They named me Grant
after realizing that they both secretly prayed for a baby—their
prayer was granted.”
    “Why did they keep it a secret with each
other?” she interrupts.
    “Because they didn’t want to let each other
feel that they were