“Does it even really matter? In Little more than three months she's moving to Berkeley with you anyway, and whether or not she lives at her own house will be completely moot."

“In Berkeley, Sam and I will live in our home together. That's different from feeling like an outsider crashing in my home. Plus, whether or not you think three months is a long time," I sighed while reaching up to caress Zofi's cheek, “when three months is all the time you have left, you don't want to waste a minute of it.”

Whimpering softly, Zofi grabbed my head and kissed me fiercely. I Lost myself in her embrace and kissed back with equal passion, at least until I remembered we had an audience and pulled away to glance sheepishly back at Rachael. "Sorry about that."

The older girl's eyes clicked back and forth between me and Zofi.

“What, exactly, is your relationship with each other?"

Zofi wrapped her arms tighter around my shoulders.

“I'm his girlfriend.”

Rachael's eyes narrowed. "Mum told me Sam was his girlfriend."

Zofi rolled her eyes.

“Sam's his Head Girlfriend. I know: it's complicated."

Rachael blinked and looked thoughtful.

“You know, Mum DID tell me to report back every little detail I learned, like the bit about whether or not Sam has her own room. But I think I'm going to omit this Little detail. She'll be happier thinking they're exclusive. As for Dad, he actually still thinks Matty's gay and Sam's just crashing because he has the room."

Zofi giggled.

Rachael gestured at the pair of us.

“The three of you clearly have things worked out to your satisfaction. So why mess with that? You still haven't explained why you think she wants to come home."

I sighed and took a deep breath. Giving Rachael a frank look, I explained, "You probably don't know much about me, but my parents divorced when I was little and my mother was absent most of the time afterward; I pretty much spent my formative years next door with the neighbors. I'm fairly independent now, and while my mother and I have quite honestly had a much better relationship these Last few months, I still spent years looking around at other families - at my friends and the way they interacted with their parents -- and couldn't help but feel a deep sense of loss.”

My voice was a little thicker than I would've wanted, and Zofi squeezed herself around me protectively. I patted her shoulder, let the side of my head press against hers, and then looked back at Rachael.

“Running away and moving in with me for good would effectively cut Sam off from her parents. On the surface, it may seem like an ideal situation, but we all know what kind of message that would send if they didn't reconcile before the end of the year. She's insulting her parents by moving out right now. She's disrespecting their authority over her, which is why your dad is being so stubborn about not giving in. The fact that she went to such an extreme measure hopefully got the point across how serious she is about NOT following in the rest of your footsteps, but at the end of the day I don't think she's ready to completely burn the bridge. If she did, she'd forever feel that same deep sense of loss I've felt all my life at not having the family everybody else around me has. And as stubborn as she is about not giving in before your dad does, she really does want to go back home where she belongs."

Rachael didn't respond to that right away. She just sort of processed what I was saying for a while, and again I was struck by how similar she appeared to Sam. Finally, though, she looked back at me. "You really believe she wants to come home?"

"I know it," I stated with certainty. I arched my eyebrows, adding

“And this is where you come in."

Me?"

"You agreed to come here at your mom's request, right? I'm guessing her marching orders were to talk to Sam and somehow convince her to come home, in addition to doing a little fact finding about her situation here with me. Well that works both ways. If you're the golden child that Sam was always struggling to emulate, that means you've got some clout with your parents. They'll listen to you. YOU can convince your dad to extend an olive branch, because I'm telling you now that as much as Sam wants to reconcile, she will NOT make the first move. Go home.

Tell him what I've told you. He has the power to get his baby girl to come back to the nest, if only he can let go of his pride."

Rachael shook her head. "I dunno about that. You think Sam's stubborn?