Why are we friends again? 1

Reena Akechi sat in her dorm room, looking at her phone. She had four missed calls, and she really didn’t want to call one of the two people back. So she squared her shoulders and pressed the digits she knew so well and waited.

“Hi, Reena.” the voice greeted her. She knew the voice all too well as it was her adopted father, who was married to her biological aunt who took her and her three siblings in after her father went on a drug-fueled binge and ended up dying because of it. That was the past. Now, thirteen years later, she was in her third year at college and her first year out of the house that was rapidly getting too small for the family.

“Hi, Dad.” Reena responded, “What’s up?”

“We are having a family dinner at the end of the week for your brother’s birthday,” he said, and she smiled.

“Which one?” she asked, and she could hear him chuckle.

“Boog