And always remember how much your crazy sister loves you.

Everything looks different when you're older, not staring up at the world but down upon it.

It was great. Freedom even the imagined kind always is.

All those clean, fresh starts had made me forget what it was like, until now, to be messy and honest and out of control. To be real.

There was nothing, nothing to depend on. And why was I surprised?

Everything hurt. I closed my eyes, pressing my cheek to the street, and waited. What for, I didn't know. To be rescued. Or found. But no one came. All I'd ever thought I wanted was to be left alone. Until I was.

If only you could really use a fail-proof system to know who was worth keeping and who needed to be thrown away. It would make it so much easier to move through the world, picking and choosing what connections to make, or whether to make any at all.