A colossal mistake. I didn’t think it through. I didn’t think about people she might see. How she would feel. I was only thinking about myself. Impressing her and being the hero. Saying good-bye to her just now, I felt like it might be the last time. Maybe Stella won’t want to see me again. I didn’t know what to say except sorry, and that didn’t seem like enough. She looked so broken, so sad. Today erased all of yesterday’s progress, and set her back. She had to see her friends like that, and with me. I promised Stella’s mother that I would take good care of her, and I broke that promise. That’s all I could think about on the drive home. Every time I glanced at Stella, her eyes were staring out the windshield as if she couldn’t get home fast enough—couldn’t get away from me fast enough. All I could do was walk her to the front door, make sure she got inside, and leave. I turn left at the corner and pull into an empty parking lot at a park. It is almost sunset. The park is empty, but I know the bench where the homeless man sleeps every night.
