Free Even the Moon Has Scars by Steph Campbell

shoves his hands in his pockets. He stares up at the sky. It’s getting dark quickly. “Sure, we can take a look really quick.”
    “Yeah? Are you sure it’s alright?”
    “I said we could do whatever you wanted, Lena.” He smiles, but it isn’t the same smile he’s flashed before. It looks forced, and I can’t figure out why. “You want to see Harvard, I’m game.”
    Still, he looks a little pained as make our way onto the grounds.
    “You applying to college already?”
    I nod. “Yep, I’m finishing up my senior year in a few months. Accelerated home school and all,” I shrug.
    “That’s cool. I’ll be graduating this year, too.”
    I can’t believe we haven’t even talked about age or grade or anything yet.
    “You thinking about going to school here?” Gabe asks.
    “Harvard?” I shake my head. “No, I was just curious. You hear so much about it, I wanted to take a look. It’s a gorgeous campus. I didn’t expect it to be so open like this. So much room. But for me, I guess I’d like to get a little further away from home.”
    “Oh yeah? Have you applied anywhere yet?”
    I nod. “Yep. Couple of local schools—”
    “Wait, you just said you wanted to get away—”
    “I had to.” I shrug. “Parents and all.”
    “Right.”
    “What about you? Where are you hoping to go to school?”
    “I don’t know, maybe Reykjavik University. ” Gabe says. I stop walking to look at him.
    “Kidding, I love it here in Boston, it’s my home. I just maybe need a break?” He says it like a question, like he’s asking me if that’s okay to admit.
    It is. It so is.
    “Okay, where do you want to take this break?”
    “I asked you first,” he says.
    This one is easy.
    “NYU. That’s my first choice. I also applied to Baylor—my aunt lives in Texas so I wouldn’t be completely alone, and I’ve heard it’s a good choice for home schooled graduates.”
    “But NYU is where you want to end up?”
    I nod. “Is there a place that’s more vibrant and full of life than New York City?”
    Gabe narrows his eyes, “Come on, you know what I think.” He motions around the campus. “Greatest city on the planet, right here.”
    “Fair enough.”
    “You know,” he says. “Gloucester has one of the best school districts in the state. Why are you homeschooling? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking?”
    “It’s just—okay,” I press my fingertips together. “This is going to sound really stupid, but my parents are too scared to send me to regular school.”
    “Scared? Like of school violence or something?”
    I shake my head. “It’s nothing like that. When I was a baby, I was really sick. I had this life threatening defect and I had to have emergency heart surgery. I almost died. Actually, I did die. But the doctors saved me—”
    “Jesus,” Gabe interrupts.
    “It’s no big deal,” I say, hoping I haven’t ruined the night.
    “Of course it’s a big deal, Lena,” There’s a scrape to his voice. The mild Spanish accent he has competes with the typical Boston drawl. I love it. “That’s not something that everyone goes through. Are you okay?”
    “I’m fine now, really. I’ve had a few bumps along the way, but I’m good. Healthy. My parents though...I think going through that with me, watching me die, watching them work to bring me back to life—it just changed something in them. They’ve had a really hard time letting me out of their sight. They’ve had a really hard time just letting me—be me.”
    “Are they like that with your sister?”
    I shake my head. “Nope. Not at all. Kaydi is a normal twenty-year-old, she has her freedom, she has...she has a life.”
    “So your parents...Now that you’re okay, they aren’t going to take any chances losing you. Makes sense.”
    “It does?” It all felt so stupid and childish coming out, but now that Gabe gets it, I feel a little less like a freak. I feel a little more like someone he might want to get to know.
    “Of course it