If Alis hadn’t run the first chance he got, maybe he’d see that everyone still loves him. That the love people feel for him isn’t contingent on whether he walks a perfectly straight line. Just like I knew, our dads would be pissed, but they’d get over it. Alis didn’t trust me. And now he’s gone. Gone someplace where I can’t see or touch or speak to him. I can’t protect him.
