“I don’t want to forget you,” he says, voice small and shaking. “I don’t want you to forget me either.” “I never could,” I say, and I mean it. “You’re inked into my story now.” “I don’t think I want to be here anymore,” he says. “Don’t feel like I need to be.” I nod, even as my throat tightens. “Knowing you, feeling like I belong, not to somewhere, but to someone—I haven’t felt that since Sophia. I forgot what it felt like. You made me remember, Rue. Made me feel real. Like that bunny did for a time. And you set me free.”
