And I just stood there in the fading afternoon light, realizing at seventeen that I was already staring into my past—that the past had a meaning that would always define you. I remember this being one of my first moments nearing adulthood, when I realized how powerful memory was—or at least it was the first time it hurt the most. And there was nothing I could do about the pain of the past—it just settled over me. The pool house and Matt were a part of my life that had happened and now they were gone. That was all. No one else knew about it. No one cared.
