Free After the Rain by Lisa de Jong Page B

with.
    “Are you on your way over?” I ask, staring up at the dorm room ceiling. Surprisingly, this is the first time I’ve paid much attention to it, but I’m glad; it’s just a bunch of square tiles with a few coated in water stains.
    “Yeah, I’m just going to say goodbye to Cory, and then I’ll be there. Do you need me to bring anything?”
    “If you have an extra box, I could use it.”
    “I’ll see what I can do. See you in a little bit,” he says.
    “Okay. I’ll be lying in bed thinking about you,” I tease running a few strands of hair between my fingers.
    He groans into the phone, which makes me grin. “You’re in trouble, Kate.”
    He doesn’t wait for my response before hanging up the phone. I’m very excited to see what kind of trouble he means.
    I lie on top of the navy blue comforter and glance around the brightly lit room. Little pieces of Emery still linger; she let me keep a few pictures she brought from home. They’re black and whites of New York City. She wants to live there after she gets out of school, and I hope that’s something she can still make her reality. I get up from the bed and start taking them down one by one.
    A knock at the door halts my thoughts. As I open it, I find Rachel’s smiling face looking back at me. “Hey, I thought you left already,” I say, returning her smile.
    “It’s nice to see you, too,” she teases, walking past me.
    “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
    “Have you heard from Emery? I tried to call her a few days ago, but she hasn’t returned it yet.”
    I sigh, remembering the last conversation I had with Emery. Her life’s been flipped upside down, a complete one-eighty from where she thought she was going at the beginning of the school year. “I talked to her a couple days ago. I guess he came to see her last week out of the blue, and it didn’t go well at all. She didn’t have much time to talk because she had to get to work so I didn’t get the whole story. Maybe we should go visit her this summer to cheer her up.”
    “I’m in. Just let me know when.” She stops, looking over at Emery’s empty bed. “If I ever see that asshole again, I’m going to kill him.”
    “That’s harsh,” I say, thinking back to that day in January when Emery’s heart was ripped from her chest, stomped on, and thrown against the wall. Maybe he deserves it …
    “It’s nothing compared to what he did to her.” She’s right, but there’s nothing we can do to him that will fix Emery’s problems.
    I watch as she glances around the bare room with a hint of sadness in her eyes. “It might sound silly, but I’m really going to miss you this summer. I mean, like, really miss you.”
    I’m going to miss her, too. Rachel’s the complete opposite of what I expected when I first met her. I’d unfairly lumped her in with every other girl our age who’d done me wrong, but Rachel’s always there when I need her.
    “Hey, you can come visit, or I can come visit you. And you know I’m going to call you at least three times a day.”
    “I’d like that.” Her smile returns, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
    “Are you okay?” It always seems like everything is perfect with her, but underneath it all, I see her unraveling.
    She studies me for a second before speaking. “I don’t know. Cory’s been distant, and I know going back home is just going to compound our problems. There’s no where to hide in a small town, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that.”
    A few months ago, I told her everything. It was my way engraving our friendship in stone … I let her in to my life completely. “Have you talked to him about it?”
    She shrugs. “It’s hard to talk to Cory about this kind of stuff. He doesn’t take anything too seriously, you know?”
    “I know, but if it’s bothering you this much, you should try.”
    “Yeah, maybe you’re right, but I think a part of me is scared about what he’ll say.”
    “What do you