After the whole Tristan-and-Sin fight—and having to call Rachel to beg her to borrow the car and come get me from the party—I can’t bring myself to get out of bed. So I stay in my room, studying the patterns of leaves and shadows in the canopy of trees outside my window as the afternoon light fades to darkness. A thick, knotty branch of a live oak reaches out toward my bedroom window, and it becomes the closest thing I have to a friend. Beyond it, a group of bay trees looms with the threat of sudden oak death. They are vectors for the disease that is slowly wiping out the majestic oak trees around here. We had a field trip last year where we learned about it, so what happens to me when my best friend is a tree and it dies too? Lena has left me alone today. Maybe she senses I am not to be fucked with, or maybe Rachel said something about my abandonment at the party in Mill Valley, but whatever. She seems to have given up on making me do anything for now. Sadly, I was half expecting her to force me to go help scatter Rachel’s ashes tonight, so I have finally gotten up, showered, brushed my teeth, made sort of an effort to get dressed.
