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In our junior year, the school announced five exchange student positions at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. All my friends urged me to apply with them. I hesitated. Beckett Romano, the boy I’d secretly been in love with for years, kissed me downstairs, just outside my dorm. “When you get back,” he’d murmured, “we’ll be together.” For him, I gave up the direct-entry Ph.D. offer from the university and signed the exchange agreement. The day before we were supposed to leave, I dragged my suitcase over to their dorm. I wanted to run through our plans one last time, but I stopped outside the door when I heard their voices. “If we all stay, what’s she going to do in Massachusetts by herself?” “If she doesn’t go, how is Sofia supposed to get her spot in our research group?” “She’s too dependent on us. She barely has any friends besides us. She’ll come back eventually.” My fingers went cold. I pushed the door open. They all froze. Beckett just frowned. “It’s too late to change things now. We can’t just leave Sofia here by herself.” “Yeah. You go first. It’s six months, max. We’ll apply for the next round and come find you.” The others chimed in, their words a clumsy chorus. “When have we ever really abandoned you?” I looked at them, all of them standing protectively in front of Sofia, and slowly nodded. Then I turned and walked away. What they didn’t know was that I hadn’t applied for a normal exchange program. It was a long-term research project in partnership with NOAA. For the next eight years, I would be stationed at overseas research bases and deployed on research vessels. Since they wanted me to go on ahead— then I would go somewhere they could never reach. … …… I pushed the door open, and the room fell silent. Sofia immediately shrank behind Beckett, twisting the cuff of her sleeve until her knuckles went white. I glanced at the papers on the table. Four withdrawal statements, all signed a month ago. Beckett gathered them up, his
