22, 36
22.Who do you feel most comfortable talking to about anything?
[ Once upon a time, the answer would’ve been Joyce-then-Giselle, their elbows knocking together as they sat piled next to one another on her bed, and maybe she doesn’t tell her everything, maybe there are secrets she keeps tucked close because secrets will always, always be her sword and shield, her armor, but it comes very close.
Once upon a time, it would’ve been Elliot, freckles like the stars and eyes too blue, a skinny shoulder against hers as they sat up late at night because Elliot couldn’t sleep and Josephine was always a little restless, because for all that she saw through him he saw straight through her too, too wise for someone so young.
But now it’s Caleb, who pushes a coffee cup across the scratched tabletop of a diner and lets one corner of his mouth quirk upward, who splits boxes of take-out with her because half the time she doesn’t feel like cooking and half the time she’s awful at it anyway, who is a pair of steady hands on her shoulders and kindness she doesn’t deserve sometimes because she pushes him away when she’s angry and bitter and hurting for things he has no control over, things he’s never done, things he will never do.
He is not the first best friend she’s had, or the
second, or the third, but she is no less thankful
for him — sometimes, she thinks she might be
thankful for him most of all, because she thinks
of an unfamiliar city and a bus stop and the
prettiest sunrise she’s ever seen.
Once upon a time it would’ve been someone else, but she’s not sorry that it’s someone she never expected now. ]
Caleb, probably.
36.Who was the last person you took a picture of?
[ There are photographs all over her apartment, in frames and tacked to the fridge and in boxes in the linen closet. They remind her of where she’s been and who she is now, what she’s gained from something she’s lost. ]
I think it was Romeo.
