"I am going to miss you so much," I tell Casey as we're lugging his suitcases into the dorm building on move on day. "I change my mind, I don't want you to leave."

"It's too late for that now, Ellie," He says with a laugh. We're both sweaty and gross because of how hot it is today at the end of summer but thankfully, the dorm building is air conditioned and stepping into it feels like heaven compared to outside.

"I know. Anyway, you go get your room key, I'm going to go fill out the guardian papers," I decide, noticing how the move-in day is set up so that the students go get everything they need for moving in and in the other direction, parents go to fill out whatever kind of forms that need to be filled out.

I'm not legally Casey's guardian but I've mastered the art of faking our foster mother's signature. At the tables set up to get the forms, I stand in the line for last names A-H and wait until I get to the front to ask for the forms for Casey Gordon. The lady working the table explains to me all that I have to fill out.

"This all has to be filled out by his legal guardian," She adds at the end as I'm going through all of the papers. Of course she doesn't believe that I'm his legal guardian; if I was his parent, I would have given birth to him at 8 years old.

I just offer her a friendly smile and say, "Yeah, I know how it works. Thank you," It might sound a bit rude but I'm not a fan of her judgmental tone, even though her judgment is spot on because I am indeed not his legal guardian. I look through the paperwork for a moment before I realize one little issue.

"It says here that you need a copy of his birth certificate?" I ask her curiously.

"Yeah, that's part of how it works, ma'am," She sasses me right back. "Just for our records, we'll need a photocopy."

"We don't have a copy of his birth certificate," I say slowly.

"It's required," She insists. "Without it, we can't allow him to continue his enrollment at this school."

"Alright, I'll get it," I decide with a long, unhappy sigh. "When do you need it by?"

"We'd prefer it today but I will leave a note with your paperwork and give you until Wednesday," She decides, writing on a little sticky note as I'm filling out the rest of the paperwork.

"Okay. Thanks," I mutter before walking away to go get the rest of the paperwork filled out. I'll have to go back to the foster home and find his birth certificate. It has to be there somewhere, I'd imagine. If they don't have it, I guess I can call the hospital in Nebraska where he was born to see if they could send me a copy.

I'll make it work. I didn't come this far to get Casey into this school just to be road blocked by a stupid birth certificate.

Once all of the paperwork is completed, I make sure that nobody is paying attention to me when I forge the signatures and then I turn it all in. Another employee looks over the papers to make sure that I filled everything out and then gives me a few packets of information, mostly about the school and more information about the kind of stuff Casey will be studying.

I meet back up with Casey by the stairs. He has his key and an access card that gets him into the building and into the stairs. The only elevator in the building is for handicapped students, so we have to carry his heavy suitcases up two flights of stairs to the third floor.

We use the signs on the walls of the dorm building to navigate the halls to find his room and we have to squeeze past all of the other people moving in because everybody is moving in at the same time so it's really crowded.

His roommate isn't in the room yet so Casey gets to choose which side of the room he wants and we toss his stuff on the bed.

"This is nice," I look around the room. It was kind of cold this morning, but since I've been helping Casey with his room, I've been hot. I slide my jacket off of my arms.

"Yeah," He agrees with me but when he looks over at me, he frowns and points to my arm. "What is that?"

I follow his finger to see that he's pointing at the pen-written phone number on my wrist. It's been a few days but whenever I shower or wash my hands, I'm careful to not let the ink wash away. "It's nothing."

"It's a phone number," Casey realizes and then he starts smiling at me. "So that's what you're going to do with your free time? Start dating?"

"What makes you think that it's a guy's phone number?" I counter with raised eyebrows.

"It is, isn't it?" He's still smiling at me. "So who is it?"

"Micah, but it doesn't matter," I say quickly. "I'm not going to call him."

"Then why don't you wash the number off?" He asks me as I start unpacking his stuff just to avoid this conversation because it's very uncomfortable and I'm now remembering why I had kept the jacket on.

"I'm going to," I assure him.

"It's smudged. How long has it been there?" He grabs my wrist to investigate further. "Holy shit, El, you like somebody."

"No I don't," I argue, pulling my wrist back. "I just haven't had time to wash it off. It's a strong pen."

"Bullshit."

"Language."

"Connerie," He says, which means bullshit in French.

"You haven't even started high school yet and you're already starting to become a smartass," I mumble. "I can't deal with you."

"You should call him," Casey laughs and then starts unpacking as well. "You've never met a guy who makes you want to... not wash off his number. And you'll have some more free time now so why not?"

"It's complicated, Case," I sigh.

"Is it a girl?" He asks me. "Because that's cool too."

"It's a guy," I say with a small laugh. "It's nice to know that if I was gay, I would have your support. But it's not that. He's the son of a senator."

"So?"

"So it's complicated," I say again.

"You're just telling yourself that it's complicated but it's not really," He insists. "I think that you should go for it. You work hard, you know, I think that you deserve it. And aren't senators loaded?"

"You think that I should date the guy just because he's rich?" I ask him with a laugh.

"I was joking," Casey tells me. "What's he like?"

"It doesn't matter," I insist just as my phone starts ringing and interrupts our conversation. I take it out of my jeans pocket and I see that it's Jill, who is my madam which is basically a classier name for a pimp. She runs the escort service so that potential clients contact her, she vets them to make sure that they're safe to work with, and then she dispatches them to one of her girls and organizes the date, time, and location.

"It's work, I'll be right back," I tell Casey before I get up and leave the room to stand in the hallway so that he can't hear the conversation. "Hello?" I answer the call.

"Samantha," Jill greets me using my fake name even though she knows my real name. "I've got a soft ball for you on Thursday, add it to your calendar."

"Alright, what's the gig?"

"Two hours, meeting at McGregor's Steakhouse," She says. "I'll send you the rest of the details later. You've got an admirer, he specifically asked for you."

"Really? Who is it?" I do have a few guys that ask for me when they call Jill because I'm their favorite or because I'm a good listener or they're in love with me. I'm just curious to see who I'll be spending my time with on Thursday.

"Silas Barkley," She answers. "He's a big name, lots of money."

"What? He asked for me?" My throat goes dry. "I've never met him before."

"It's in the records that you met with him on Wednesday," Jill informs me and then I remember that in order to avoid getting vetted, Jay told them that he was his father so it would show up that I was with him on Wednesday. It's probably Jay again but why would he ask for me after what happened before?

"Um, okay," I mumble. "Send me the info."

"You've got it," She says slowly but doesn't ask any questions.

"Thanks. I have to go, I'm with family."

I hang up the phone instead of saying goodbye and then head back into the dorm room where Casey is already finishing unpacking because he didn't bring that much stuff with him. We're only about a twenty-minute train ride back to our house so it's not like if he needs something, he can't just come back home and get it.

"I don't know why you have to leave the room every time work calls you," Casey says as I return. "How does a factory job have to be so secretive?"

"I don't know, it's just a habit to leave the room, I guess," I shake off his question. "Now that you're all set, I guess that's my cue to get out of here and let you get situated."

"Okay," He sighs, looking a little bit nervous. I'm nervous too. We haven't been apart since he was born. We've depended on each other for so long, we've been a team. I mean, we're still a team but we won't be together so it'll be different. "So I'll come back in a few weeks for the weekend or something."

"Yeah. And call me every day," I order him. "Let me know if you need money, I'll send you some. I know that you're going to kill it here, but I'm just going to miss you so much."

"I know. I'll miss you too," He admits and then I grab his arm and pull him to me so that we're hugging. Usually, he's not a fan of hugs which is why I figured that I'd have to force it upon him but I'm pleasantly surprised when he hugs me back.

"Eat healthy too. I don't want you having sex but if you really have to, I left some condoms in your bag. Just be reasonable. And no drugs. You know that, you're a good kid. I just love you so much, you know? I'm so excited for you but I'm going to miss having you around."

"Ellie, I'm not dying," Casey tells me with a laugh. "I'll see you in a few weeks."

"I know," I sigh, finally releasing my little brother from my strong grasp. I've spent almost my entire life looking out for him, protecting him, and helping him grow up well. But now he won't need me there to look after him and I just don't know what I'll do with myself. "I know. I'm being ridiculous."

As I get myself together again, Casey gets on his phone and I can't see what he's doing but I assume that he's texting somebody until he asks me, "Is that last number a 6 or an 8?" As he motions to the hand-written phone number on my arm.

"An eight. Wait, what?" I answered without thinking about it but then when I realize what he asked, I look at him curiously. He doesn't explain himself but when he puts the phone to his ear, he makes it clear exactly what he's up to. Before I can snatch the phone away from him, he slinks up onto his bunk bed where I can't reach him.

"It's ringing," He informs me with a loud laugh.

"Casey, stop. Hang up the phone," I say to him, trying to get up onto the bed to stop him from making this call to Micah but he shoves himself into the corner and I can't reach him.

"Hi, is this Micah?" Casey says and I guess that he answered the phone. I feel like I'm going to vomit. "Awesome, you don't know me but my sister had your number written on her arm but she was too afraid to call you herself so here she is. Say hi, Ellie."

He doesn't actually give me the phone but he does put it on speaker.

"I'm going to kill you," I inform my brother. "Hang up the phone."

"Wait, no, don't hang up," Micah says on the other end of the line. "Ellie... that's your real name?"

Casey gives me a curious look, probably wondering why Micah wouldn't know my real name. He doesn't say anything though so I just give up on being the one who is calling the shots in this situation. "It's Eleanor."

"You want to date my sister?" Casey asks him. I try again to reach the phone but he keeps it away from me with a mischievous laugh.

"Yeah, I do. Does she want to date me?" He asks my brother and I guess that they're both now just completely ignoring my say in this situation at all.

"No," I say but Casey throws a pillow at me from his bed.

"Yes, she really does," Casey confirms into the phone. "She's just shy and moody. But she's not working on Tuesday so how do you feel about Tuesday at 6?"

"Um. Yeah, I can do Tuesday at six. Tell her that I'll pick her up."

"I will text you the address," He says. "And her phone number so that I don't have to do all of the work around here. Oh, and don't worry about condoms because she's stocked up."

That last comment gives me just a bit of bionic strength to throw myself onto the bed over top of my brother to grab the phone from him. He's laughing hysterically the entire time but I do eventually get the phone pried out of his strong, stubborn hand. I take the phone off of speaker and put it to my ear.

"Don't listen to him," I say quickly. "I'm sorry that he bothered you."

"You're not bothering me," Micah assures me. "We're on for Tuesday, right? I promise that I will totally disregard the condom thing."

I want to say no because of how badly this could end but I also want to say yes because I really did enjoy that night with Micah. Which is why I never had the heart to wash his number away. And Casey obviously wants me to get out there, maybe so that he doesn't have to worry about me feeling alone in our apartment now that he won't be there.

"Fine," I decide. "Tuesday then. Just don't make it a big deal."

"Okay, I won't make it a big deal," He promises. "I'll see you on Tuesday then."

"See you Tuesday," I agree and then I hang up the phone and toss it back at my brother before I clamber off of the bunk.

"I'm a pretty great wingman," Casey gloats, looking very proud of himself now.

"You're terrible," I give him a pointed look. "But I'll still miss you. Don't forget to call me tomorrow, let me know how your classes go."

"I will. I love you, Ellie."

He leans down from the bunk and I kiss the top of his head through his short dark hair. "I love you too, kiddo."

And then I leave the dorm room and then the building and I head back to the apartment to be alone for the first time in my life.