"Morgan! Can you hear me?"

In front of me, there was a face I hadn't seen in the flesh for months. I smiled and lifted a hand to wave as a pixelated version of my older sister appeared onscreen.

"Hey, Vanessa."

There was some movement on her end; she picked up her laptop and shuffled to a different spot on the couch, giving me a view of her impeccable minimalist living room in the process. I'd only visited her apartment in Boston once, a couple of months back, but the memory had stuck in my mind—probably out of envy more than anything. Everything that Vanessa touched ended up beautiful and organized, so her first apartment in the city with now-fiancé Spencer would never have been an exception. All white walls and tasteful houseplants and furniture that looked expensive but actually she had the knack of finding in thrift stores. It was like looking at a 3D Pinterest board.

My own backdrop—the gray-tinged breeze block of my dorm room—was much less aesthetically pleasing.

"Sorry, I needed to move closer to the charger. Can you see and hear me OK?"

"Yeah, all good."

"Great." Settled now, she looked right into the camera, giving me a smile. Of course, she looked as put-together as ever. Poker-straight hair that was the same shade as mine, except without the frizz. Minimal yet flattering make-up. A stylish work shirt buttoned up to the collar. "God, Morgan, it's been so long since I last saw your face."

"Does it look different?"

She peered at me, considering. "You do look a little older. But maybe that's my brain freaking out at the idea you're old enough to go to college. Because that means I must be ancient."

I laughed. "Stop it. You're not."

"I feel it," she said. "I think it's the wedding planning. I swear, it's going to take years off my life."

Vanessa had been engaged for almost a year now, after a four-year romance with her college sweetheart, Spencer. The proposal—over wine and a lovingly cooked meal on a date night in—had been low-key and classy, the ring the stuff of four hundred Facebook likes, but they hadn't got around to start making actual wedding plans until now. From what Mom had told me, they hadn't even picked a venue yet, but the process was clearly already taking a toll.

"That bad?" I asked. "I thought it was supposed to be fun."

"I thought that too, until I realized how much was involved." She rolled her eyes. "Did you know pretty much every venue has a two-year waiting list? Two years! It makes me feel disorganized compared to all these other brides. And then I get even more stressed because I don't like the thought of being behind. Plus, work's been super busy, Spencer's been working nights so we're on completely different schedules..." She stopped, took a breath. "Can you tell things are a little crazy? But you don't want to hear about me. You're the one with something interesting to tell. How's life at Davidson?"

A loaded question. I didn't really know where to start.

So I went vague.

"It's okay."

"Just okay?" Vanessa echoed. "Come on, you've got to give me more than that. There's probably more going on inside that campus than there is in all of Boston. Has anyone tried to climb the clock tower yet? That used to be some stupid tradition that one frat guy always attempted while drunk."

"Uh... I don't think so."

"Huh." Vanessa looked surprised. "Maybe college students have got more intelligent these last few years. That's a nice thought."

"There are a lot of parties," I told her. "I've been to a few, but it's not really my thing. Hanna's the one making the most of it."

"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me." She smiled knowingly. She had always gotten on well with Hanna, since we were little kids—probably because they both had that charismatic pull that guaranteed instant friendships. If they could've bottled it, I would've bought it by the gallon. "Let me guess: she's having the time of her life."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"And you're rooming with her, right?"

I nodded, my gaze flickering toward Hanna's side of the room. It was a picture of comfortable chaos—a mess of familiar belongings that kept me anchored to normality, even when she wasn't here. "Honestly, it's ideal. She's clean, considerate, and with her social life, I'm never short on peace. Plus, it's impossible to be bored when she's always trying to drag me to one place or another."

This seemed to placate Vanessa; I saw it on her face. Either she'd been briefed by Mom before this conversation, or the pair of them were more similar than I thought. "She's good for you, that girl."

I rolled my eyes. "So I've heard."

"There's nothing wrong with it, though," she went on. "Not being into the parties, I mean. It's sensible, if anything. You focus on your grades now, and you'll save yourself a lot of headache further down the line."

I appreciated the sentiment, although it was less comforting when I knew that Vanessa's college social life had been infinitely busier and her grades were still better than mine. It was easy to be jealous of her, but over the years I'd learned that didn't get me anywhere. Sure, she was beautiful, successful and often intimidating, but she was also caring and supportive, and she'd made even more of an effort to take me under her wing since Caleb died. As far as big sisters went, I was pretty lucky.

"Yeah, that's my plan. And my classes are pretty interesting so far, which makes it easier."

"That's great." She was still smiling. "Hey, you're taking Introduction to Biochem, right? Does Professor Calder still teach that?"

"Yeah."

"God, he used to be such a dick," Vanessa recalled. "I remember he had a complete meltdown one day because the same four people in the front row were answering every question and nobody else was making the effort. Went on this huge rant about how we were wasting thousands of dollars on tuition and would all fail miserably if we didn't start to engage. He went on for, like, thirty minutes, until he was actually red in the face. And then dismissed us right away. It was weird."

"That is weird," I said, trying to picture it. "I mean, he's a bit of a dick, but it's nothing that extreme. Maybe he let it all out then."

"Maybe he did," Vanessa mused. "Ugh, Morgan, you're making me miss college. I'm so jealous that you're getting to experience it all for the first time. What I'd give to go back and do it all over again."

As she sighed wistfully, I stayed quiet. Perhaps the best was yet to come, but right then, I couldn't see myself ever looking back and wanting to relive the whirlwind that had been the last few weeks. They hadn't been bad, just... exhausting. The barrage of new people and unfamiliar places and a new chapter of life was a lot for my introverted brain to handle. Now, I was slowly easing into college life, and each day felt more like normality than a massive dose of adjustment—but I still didn't want to do it a second time.

"Mom was telling me you're involved with some kind of group," Vanessa continued. "Volunteering, or something? She was really excited about it."

So she had been briefed. "Yeah. It's, uh, this new thing all about promoting literacy in disadvantaged communities. There's a couple dozen of us, and we do book donations, school visits, library outreach—all sorts of stuff. It's fun."

"That sounds amazing," Vanessa said, genuinely interested. "And also like a big commitment. Do you have to put in a lot of hours?"

"As many as I want. It's pretty flexible."

"And it's all student-led?"

I nodded.

"Wow." Vanessa's eyebrows had practically reached her hairline. A little pocket of pride inside me swelled. "I'm impressed. Plus, that's going to look amazing on your resumé."

"Yeah, I'm glad I got involved," I told her. "I feel like I'm doing some good."

"And it must be great for meeting people, right? For making friends."

Right then, I stopped in my tracks. The obvious hit me like a train. I may have told Mom about joining the group, talking in vague terms about various new friends, but I hadn't got around to disclosing the Very Significant Development that had happened in the past few days. Not because I was hiding it—I just wasn't sure how to break the news without anyone getting overexcited and embarrassing.

Since Josh was my first ever boyfriend, that was likely impossible.

But if someone had to be the first to know, Vanessa was a much less humiliating candidate than Mom.

"About that..." I began, when the silence on the line had stretched a beat too long. "I guess I've, uh, got some news."

She sat up. "You have?"

I let the words roll around my mouth a couple of times, testing them out. All I had to say was one simple phrase—I have a boyfriend—but it felt like taking an oral exam in a beginner language class. Except here the concept was as foreign as the articulation.

"There's this guy from the group," I said instead. "And... well, we're kind of seeing each other."

I braced myself for an explosive reaction, almost wincing behind the shield of my screen. But she simply froze.

I actually checked to see if the Wi-Fi had given out. It hadn't.

"Oh my God," she said eventually. "Really?"

I nodded.

"Morgan! When did this happen?"

I walked back through the days in my head, one at a time. "Uh... last week."

"And you didn't say anything?" Vanessa looked scandalized. "I didn't even know there was a guy. I feel so out of the loop. You need to catch me up. What's his name? What's he like?" She stopped, realizing something. "More importantly, does Mom know about him?"

"No, she doesn't, because I already know how she's going to react," I said. "Like this, times a thousand."

Vanessa grimaced. "Sorry. I did get a little excited there. But you took me by surprise, Morg. I know we haven't talked in a few weeks, but I wasn't expecting you to spring a new boyfriend on me."

"His name's Josh," I told her, trying to bite back the smile. "He's a sophomore, he's the one who set up the volunteering group... and you're allowed one further question."

This seemed to surprise her, but she didn't argue. Instead, she spent the next few seconds in what I assumed was deep thought about how to make the most of it.

She ended up taking me by surprise, too.

"Is he nice to you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "That's your one question?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"I don't know," I said truthfully. "I thought you'd want something more specific. A last name, maybe. A starting point for your social media stalking."

"I'm not going to do any stalking. Now I can't say the same for Mom, obviously, but nothing from my end. I trust your judgement. If you like him enough to make him your boyfriend, I'm sure I'll like him too. The only thing I want to know is exactly that: is he nice to you?"

I managed to stop myself from rolling my eyes. "He's nothing but nice to me," I told her, "and he makes me really happy. How about that?"

She smiled. "Then that's all I need to know."

"Thank you."

"Unfortunately, it's not all that Mom will need to know," she said, her eyes glinting mischievously. "And if she finds out I've had this information for more than ten minutes without telling her, she will flip. So you better tell her. Like, immediately."

On one hand, breaking the news to Vanessa first had been a great trial run. On the other, it perhaps would've been better to get the worst over first. But it was too late to change my mind now.

"I will, I will. Look for the incoming bombshell on the family WhatsApp."

"I can't wait," she said. Then, on her end, there was the sound of a door opening, and Vanessa's gaze zoned in on somewhere beyond her laptop screen. "Oh, hey, Spence is awake. Sorry, Morgan, I better go, so we can at least eat one meal of the day together."

"That's okay," I told her. "You go eat."

"We'll talk soon, okay? No weeks of silence this time—from either of us. Or else the time will fly by and it'll end up being Thanksgiving before I see your face again."

"I won't let it happen. I'll keep you updated."

"You better." Vanessa looked up again as a male voice sounded in the background, followed by the clattering of what sounded like kitchen utensils. "Yeah, I'm eating, too. I'll come help," she said to Spencer, before turning back to the screen. "See you later, Morgan. Remember to have fun, okay? Trust me when I say you'll never get this time back—and you'll miss it when it's gone. Love you."

I gave her a small smile. "I know. Love you, too."

The call disconnected, and the screen went blank.

Leaving me alone in the empty room.

It didn't make sense after such an overdue and heartwarming conversation, but in that moment, I was struck by a pang of loneliness, coupled with a sadness for the brother I would never get to catch up with again.

---------------

There we go! We're getting to know Morgan's family a little more. Here's the first real introduction to her older sister, Vanessa, but the wounds are still raw after what happened with Caleb.

For the last month, I've been doing Camp NaNoWriMo (albeit with a reduced goal), and I'm delighted to say that I added 25,000 more words to the manuscript for this story! Which means the chapters continue with regular updates, and trust me, there's much more to come...

As always, let me know what you thought! Your comments are what inspire me to keep on writing.

- Leigh