The Reunion

by Kiersten Modglin

Finally, the queen had fallen.

That’s the burden parents face, isn’t it? When we’re with them, we take it all for granted. We wish for time away. We wish for a moment of peace. Then, as soon as we’re away, supposed to be enjoying our peace, we wish to be right in the middle of it all again. Childhood is both very long and very short and, as parents, there’s nothing we’re more aware of than that.

“Hey, do you want to go to the bookstore with me?” It was like asking a dog if he wanted a bone. I was the dog and the books were the bone.

You don’t have to be the one throwing the flames in order to help spread the fire.”

Of course, there was still the option that I could invite her up. Be a good Samaritan. But good Samaritans often ended up with their own true crime documentaries, and I had no desire to do that.

Only two people knew what I’d done—me and her. And we’d both take that secret to the grave.

The heart wants what it wants, Cait. Sometimes you just have to give in to it and let the world burn around you.”

My entire world had gone up in flames, and I was still holding the match.

my hair had been pulled up into a messy bun, and I had an open bag of potato chips in the passenger seat. When I pictured running into my exes someday, this was not how I wanted it to go.

Everything is hanging by a thread every day. A single move, a single choice, can change the course of your life completely.