54

Twenty-One Years Old

“It’s okay, Salem. I understand.”

Salem feels terrible. Isabel is graduating from the University of Chicago with her BS in Criminal Justice. She wants Salem to attend the ceremony. The thought of leaving the state makes Salem’s heart buck. “I’m sorry, Bellie. I wish I were—”

Bel interrupts her. “I love you just the way you are. I’ll have Mom videotape it, and we’ll have a private viewing at your place, okay? You can meet my new girlfriend too! She said she wants to come to Minneapolis and check out my friends.”

Salem smiles into the phone, but she feels the crack in their friendship like it’s a tear in her own physical body. She knew things would change when Bel left for college, but they had Skype, and the phone, and Bel came home for every holiday and the summers.

Not this summer, though.

She’d just been accepted into summer skills training, the next step to being hired by the Chicago Police Department. Working for Chicago PD was her dream job, the one she’d been training for her entire life.

“That sounds good, Bel. I can’t wait to meet her.”

But she feels it in her gut.

The two of them are growing apart, their friendship crumbling under the impossible weight of adulthood.