OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS, our faces are all over the news. Headlines like MISSING TEENS FOUND and IT WAS ALL A HOAX and THEY AREN'T A PART OF THE ILLUMINATI (YET) join them. Ezra, Dahlia and I don't leave the Boivin-Rots house other than to give our statements to the police. (We just went for a little trip, officer. We didn't mean to cause all this panic.)

News agencies reach out to us for interviews, but we decline each one, even the one that Marisol's mom works at.

After a while, all the attention dies down. For the rest of the summer, things are normal, things are good. It's like we're living in the perfect little bubble where nothing bad ever happened to us and nothing is ever going to change.

But nothing stays the same forever.

***

THE FIRST CHANGE is not really a change at all. We're all sitting down for dinner one day at this fancy restaurant on the bay, me and Ezra and the Boivin-Rot family. We're all dressed up and everything; it's that kind of dinner. All three of the Boivin-Rots are nervous and twitchy.

Dr. Rot tears off a piece of bread. "So, Antigone and Ezra, we've been doing some research into adult adoption for those over the age of 18."

My stomach churns. Ezra looks like he isn't sure if he wants to laugh or cry.

"Ever since we've been watching over you two, we've really begun to see you like family," Dr. Boivin says. "Like you're our own children."

"Yeah!" Dahlia adds.

"And we just wanted you both to know, that if you're open to the idea, we'd be more than happy to make it legitimate in the eyes of the law and officially adopt you both," Dr. Rot finishes.

"No pressure or hard feelings either way," Dr. Boivin quickly adds.

Ezra decides what he wants to do. He starts bawling.

Dahlia's moms explode in a flurry of attempting to calm him down.

"It's just—" he tries to say. "It's just—after my mom I never thought—everything's been so hard on my own and—I love you guys so much and—yes, yes, yes, that's all I can—"

The sobs get to be too much for him. He stops trying to speak at all.

Dr. Rot and Dr. Boivin comfort him until he calms down. Then they look at me, sort of smiling.

My chest caves in.

How do I tell them no, I appreciate the offer but I literally have a mom back on Apollonisi? How do I just turn down something like that?

My voice is quiet. I sound like a diluted version of myself. "I'm really, really sorry, thank you so much for offering and everything, but I have a mom back home. I appreciate everything you guys have done for me, but... I already have a mom, even if she isn't here with me, even if I never get to see her again."

They nod.

"You're still always welcome in our house," Dr. Rot says. "You're still a member of our family.

The next day they go to the courthouse to get the documents to officially adopt Ezra.

***

THE NEXT CHANGE comes out of nowhere and completely fucks everything up.

At the end of summer, we throw a "going away party" for Marisol and Dahlia. I don't realize what this means. I just know that it's a lot of fun.

We go down to the beach. There's music playing, and lots of people everywhere. Some I've met a couple of times, Dahlia and Marisol's friends from school or theatre or dance. Some even remember my name (and I remember theirs!) and come up to talk to me for a while. Everyone's in a swimsuit.

There's dancing, singing, and playing in the water. There's vegan Korean barbeque. There are tears and a dramatic video put together of photos of Marisol and Dahlia through the years. There's gift-giving, things like plates and bedsheets and cards with money inside them.

At the end of all the gift-giving, Dr. Rot and Dr. Boivin, whom Ezra and I have started calling by their first names, Ellie and Jo, pull us aside and give the two of us a small wrapped box.

"We thought you two would be needing these," Dr. Rot tilts her head. "Considering..."

We tear the wrapping paper off. The small boxes contain iPhones.

Ezra starts crying again.

Honestly, so do I.

Towards the end of the night, Marisol pulls me aside. She's spent most of the party talking to her various friends and relatives. Sometimes, if it's someone important like her Aunt Rita, she'll come looking for me and introduce me to them as "my girlfriend, Antigone."

I guess that's something that means something in America.

It's something that Marisol decided she wants to call me and wants me to call her.

It makes my chest feel all light and sunshiney.

Everything with Marisol does.

We sit side-by-side at one of the picnic tables, our legs wound together. I show her my new phone. She helps me set it up and teaches me how to use all of the apps. I add her number to it, and then for a while we just sit there together, watching the rest of the party go on.

"So what's gonna happen to us?" She turns to face me, the sunlight illuminating her braids.

The question catches me off guard. "What do you mean?"

Her expression flattens out. "I'm leaving for college tomorrow."

"I still don't understand."

"I'm leaving for school in New York tomorrow," she explains. "That's, like... an eighteen hour drive from here. I probably won't even be able to come home for the holidays, it's so far. I'll probably only be coming back to Florida over summer break. Maybe winter break, too. If I'm lucky." She intertwines her hands in mine. "So what are we going to do? Are we going to try to go long-distance? Are we going to take a break? Are we going to call it off completely?"

I can sort of follow what she's talking about. She's moving very far away from here for school. She wants to know what's going to happen to our relationship. But I don't know... I don't know what would be best. I don't know much of anything at all.

"What do you think would be best?" I ask.

"I don't want to leave you. But it's so far away, and you barely know how to text."

"I can learn."

She smiles sadly. "Maybe we could make long-distance work."

I nod. "I think we can."

"We can FaceTime. I'll teach you how to FaceTime."

"Whatever FaceTime is, I want in."

Marisol laughs and it makes me fall in love with her all over again.

"Is Dahlia going to school in New York, too?" I ask.

"No." She shakes her head. "She's going to St. Petersburg. Which is still in Florida, but it's pretty far. Like four hours from here or something like that. Hey. Tiggy. I just had an idea."

"What?"

"You should get your GED."

"My what?"

"Your GED. It's a bunch of tests you take that prove you have the equivalent of a high school diploma. You can take classes and stuff to study for it and get you ready."

"I can learn things?"

"You can learn so many things."

    Maybe I will get my GED. I want to learn everything this new world has to offer.

"What are you going to do about... you know?" I ask. "Your new divinity?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. I just... I really just want to live this life for as long as I can. I want to get my education. I want to do things. Grow up and stuff. Then we'll see what happens. I'm really procrastinating it all. Putting it off for as long as possible. I have the rest of eternity to figure it all out."

She grins sheepishly and kisses me one last time and all I can think about is that I don't want her to leave me.

***

WE DRIVE DAHLIA four hours northwest to her new school the next morning and help her unpack. Her room is cramped, and shared with another girl. It's bigger than the room I shared with my mom, but now that I've gotten used to American luxury, I don't know how anyone could live like that.

We hug and say our goodbyes. Everybody cries a little bit, Dahlia the most out of everyone. She promises to call every night.

Then we head back home.

Just like that, we left her behind.

***

MARISOL AND DAHLIA leaving us fucks me up, but not as badly as I would have thought. Dahlia calls each of us every night just like she promised, and, being four hours away, she's able to come home for holidays and every once in a while "just because." Marisol and I text everyday and FaceTime at least once a week. She sends me photos of all the amazing things she's doing at school, photos from her performances and dumb little selfies and pictures of all the cool things she sees in New York.

We even make plans for me to fly up (by myself!) to visit her for a week in the spring.

And then, one night as we're on the couch watching House Hunters, Ezra hits me with the last change, and the one that arguably affects me the most.

"I enrolled back in school for the spring semester," he says.

After all this college talk with Dahlia and Marisol, I know what those words mean. I just don't really understand it. I grab a fistful of popcorn and shove it in my mouth. "Congratulations!"

"The school's back in Texas," he adds.

The popcorn dries on my tongue. My stomach drops to the ground. A lump forms in my throat. He's leaving me, too. I'm going to be all alone. Why didn't I stay on Apollonisi? Why did I come to America only for all of my friends to leave me?

"I'm renting an apartment there," he continues. "I've saved up some money"—he's had a waitering job for a while now—"and Ellie and Jo said they'd help with any expenses I needed help with, and I'll probably get a part-time job there, too."

"Okay," I say, not understanding why he feels the need to explain all of this to me. I've already got the gist of it: I'm going to be alone.

"I want you to come with me. You're my sister, you're my family, I don't want to leave you behind. You can—you can get a job if you want, so you can help me with rent and stuff and have something to do. You can work on your GED like you've been wanting to. I also... I don't really want to move back there by myself. What do you think?" he nudges me. "Two queers take Texas?"

"I'm in," I say. "I'm totally in."

***

AND SO, IN THE SPRING, Ezra and I move to Texas. He goes back to school and gets another part-time waitering job. I even get a job, like he suggested, at a clothing store. When I come home each day, I study for my GED.

A couple weeks after we move out there, I fly to New York to visit Marisol. The city is... inexplicable, really, like you made the stars on earth. But being able to kiss Marisol again is like you made the sun into a girl.

And then I go back home, to Texas, and life goes on.

Since we've been out here, I've made friends other than the three. My coworkers and I will all go out for lunch together and hang out on the weekend. I take fencing lessons to keep myself agile. I like having a weapon in my hands for a reason other than to draw blood.

I miss Apollonisi something terrible, but in all honesty, there is not much that I truly miss other than the familiarity of it all.

Back home, everyone lived in the dark. Science and reason were swept aside. Emotion and fear reigned supreme. Tradition outweighed progress. We cowered in fear of the gods we were supposed to worship.

There was a tradition there, dating back thousands of years, just like all of our other traditions. In our homes, we kept a shrine to an unknown god. Out of fear that there might have been a god out there that we didn't yet know about, or that we didn't think to worship. That they might get angry and enact vengeance on us.

That is how scared we were of our gods.

We were too afraid, or maybe too stupid, or too set in our ways, to admit who has the real power.

After all, we are the ones that worship them.