The People We Keep

by Allison Larkin

I wonder if maybe all you do is meet people and lose them and your smile fades the further you go because you have to carry the space they leave.

“You don’t get to disappear anymore. You can’t go running off into the woods like a wounded deer. You lean on me when it hurts. That’s what we’re here for—to lean on each other.”

I wonder if maybe when Max meets the sea, he will understand how it’s his oldest friend. He’ll think, Oh, I know you, and he’ll feel like he belongs.

We have people we get to keep, who won’t ever let us go. And that’s the most important part.