November 2006 – March 2007

Drew didn't hear about Go Tower until it was almost entirely built. He supposed it made sense, since Jack was legally an adult and could take care of the others. But it still didn't sit right with him.

"They're my brothers, Drew," Sierra said. "I have to give them another chance." They were sitting on Drew's bed, currently being used by Sierra, cross-legged and facing each other.

"But Jack was such a dick about everything."

"I want this. Can you please just be supportive?"

"He doesn't care about you," Drew blurted. Sierra's eyes widened and Drew backtracked. "No, wait –"

"You know what, fuck you," Sierra spat, launching herself off the bed.

"I didn't mean that."

"Yeah, well, part of you must have or you wouldn't have said it," she argued. "I'll be out of here by morning."

True to her word, Sierra was gone before Drew woke the next day. She left no trace but for the strawberries in the fridge (she was the only one who ate them) and a few of her belongings in the trash. Drew sighed and removed her animology book, entirely intact except for a bent corner. He flipped to the last page, trying to remember what Sierra had said she was. Purple Squirrel? Magenta Beaver? Something like that.

He found her result, circled neatly in ink from her green gel pen. It was neither of those (he wasn't even sure those were real answers), but the White Tiger. He skimmed the result: You are unique, graceful, and cunning, but fall victim to what others think of you … Yes, this was much more Sierra. But then why had she lied?

Then his eyes found the soulmate section. Oh.

Like Jack had pretended nothing was wrong after Sierra moved out, Sierra did the same after she moved to Go Tower, however many times Drew tried to get her to talk about it. Mostly, though, she wanted to talk about colleges, which stressed Drew out to no end. Before he knew it, it was spring, and he and Sierra were going on college tours.

"I don't know about this one," Drew said as they walked across the quad.

"You're just set on MIST," she said.

"What's wrong with MIST?"

"Nothing. It's just good to have an open mind. I dunno."

He looked over at Sierra, walking with her eyes toward the buildings. They had travelled all the way out to California to view this particular school – they had both gotten in – but Drew himself wasn't particularly inclined to go far when one of the best robotics schools in the country was right in his hometown. Sierra, though …

How would he get through the next four years without her? It was hard to imagine his life without her now, now that they had been through so much together now that –

"Hey, Drew?" Sierra cut off his rambling thoughts with her soft voice. "You know wherever I go, you're never going to stop being my best friend, right?"

How did she always seem to know what he was thinking. "Oh. Sure," he said.

"C'mon weirdo," she said, pulling him forward. "I want to check out the rest of campus before graduation."

They had gotten adjoining hotel rooms found that night (Mama Lipsky had offered to pay for one for both of them and Drew immediately shot her down), but Drew found he couldn't sleep. What if Sierra did go away for college? And she would forget about him, whatever she said, because obviously she didn't want to even be with him enough as it was, since she moved into that stupid Go Tower, and they wouldn't do things like movie nights and dinner dates and –

Date. Had he just thought 'date?' Not to quote Eddie, but seriously?

He supposed they did do date-like things, he supposed. But it's not like they were dating. He'd gone out with Amy for several months, and Sierra had gone out with Martin –

His stomach bubbled white hot, and Drew almost doubled over with the pure surprise of it. Was he ill? He hadn't eaten anything funny today? It took him another moment to identify that feeling as jealousy. But he didn't have a reason to be jealous unless –

Oh. Oh no.

He was in love with his best friend.