flew me to places I've never been
Everest’s fingers curled slightly around the edge of the table, the motion quiet and precise. He let her words hang in the air for a moment, as if testing their weight—testing whether the shape of them made sense inside his head. The idea of shrinking his radius… it had a kind of logic to it. But there was no place like home. Not in the sentimental sense—but in the way that every creaking floorboard and scuff on the wall had already been catalogued and accounted for. Haulani, for all his time spent there, still held edges he hadn’t mapped.
"I'm not sure where I would stay." He thought of the sea breeze through Isla’s windows, of the bright scattering of light patterns. Of lying on her floor as a dog because it was the only way to make the noise stop. His thumb tapped once against the edge of the table before stilling again. "I wonder if Mateo wanted to move La Verbena down, I could stay on the boat." It felt safer somehow. Contained. Familiar, in a different way, if only because he'd long ago internalized his friend's chaos.
"I'm not sure where I would stay." He thought of the sea breeze through Isla’s windows, of the bright scattering of light patterns. Of lying on her floor as a dog because it was the only way to make the noise stop. His thumb tapped once against the edge of the table before stilling again. "I wonder if Mateo wanted to move La Verbena down, I could stay on the boat." It felt safer somehow. Contained. Familiar, in a different way, if only because he'd long ago internalized his friend's chaos.
but now I'm laying on the cold hard ground
