Chapter 12

Knowing that—that there was a choice—he could consider the alternative.

What if he told people? Would he want that?

His mother would sniff and dismiss his work, but she did so already. His father would boast and puff up emptily, but he did that as well. Colby heard a few other voices—Liam, Tony, the laughter of you thought you could be good enough, you never were, no wonder everyone leaves—but he pushed them down and shut the mental trapdoor and sat squarely atop it for good measure.

Not everyone left. Jason hadn’t left. Jillian and Andy, Leo and Tim and Laurie…they’d been there, at the hospital. After. Caring. Yelling about caring, in Andy’s case.

He wasgood enough. He was good enough for them to love. And if he wasn’t perfect, he didn’t have to be. Jason’d said so. And was indisputably, tangibly, with a tiny adorable huff of sleeping exhale, still here.