If family folklore was to be trusted, I had never learned to shut up or do as I was told.

Our family was stuck in a cosmic hamster wheel of toxic love, making the same mistakes, saying the same words, being hurt in the same ways generation after generation. I didn’t want to keep playing a role in this tragedy of errors.

I’d leave this house the first chance I got, but not by chasing after a boy, including my brother. I’d do it on my own terms, following my dreams, not someone else’s.

I was the barefoot schoolgirl in my barrio apartment; he was a star flashing past us all, and the glow would disappear with him when he left again.