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d. "I have not been a wreck, Carol; don't tell her that." "You checked her university's website twice yesterday." "I was doing research." "Into what?" "The campus safety ratings." I started laughing, and my mom made that sound she always made when she was trying not to laugh at herself, that short exhale through her nose. "I'm fine," I said. "I promise, it's just been a busy week." "Are you eating properly?" "Yes." "Are you sleeping?" "Yes." "Are the girls in your dorm nice?" "Hanna is the only girl in my dorm, and you already know Hanna." "I mean the other ones on your floor." "They're fine, Mom." "Fine like actually fine or fine like you don't want to talk about it?" "Fine like actually fine." Hanna appeared from the bathroom fully ready, pointing aggressively at her wrist where a watch would be if she wore one. "I have to go," I said, "we're going shopping." "With whom." "Hanna." "Okay, good. Stay together, don't walk back after dark, and text me when you're back." "I'm in college, not a foreign country." "Same thing," she said. "I love you." "Love you too, say bye to Dad." "She says bye," my mum called out. "Tell her to call more," my dad called back. I hung up smiling. "Okay, let's go before you find another reason to stay in," Hanna said, already halfway out the door. The shopping area was about a fifteen-minute walk from campus, a stretch of stores that ranged from affordable to why would anyone pay that much for a plain white shirt. Hanna had a specific energy when she shopped, focused, and decisive, moving through rails like she had a list in her head that nobody else could see. I was mostly there for the company and the food after. "What about this?" she held up a top. "It's nice." "Nice like you mean it or nice like you're not paying attention?" "Nice, like it's nice, Hanna; I don't know what you want me to say." "I want you to have an opinion." "My opinion is that it's nice." She put it back. "You're useless at this." "I told you that before we left." "I thought you were being modest." "I was being honest." She moved further down the rail, and I followed, checking my phone and responding to a message from my course group chat about the reading for Monday. The store was warm and busy, music low in the backgro
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