Four Years

{As featured in the Hearts on Sleeves Anthology}

It'd be poetic to say that Magda left Tucson and never looked back, but it wouldn't be true. While Seattle has its charms, it's missing a few things, like good weather and her friends. And one friend in particular, who dropped off the planet as soon as the moving truck left town.

Back in Tucson for the first time in four years, Magda would love to hang out with those very friends. Instead, she's stuck at her twin cousins' quinceañera party, and on Valentine's Day, no less. Surrounded by freshmen and her poison-tongued aunt, she decides to make the best of a bad situation and look for familiar faces to keep the boredom at bay. It's an exercise in futility.

Magda decides that it's pointless to keep looking-but she's about to learn that the things we look for the hardest are often hidden in plain sight.