Rose and I met at a tiny but well reputed college in the northern mountains of Barceley. A liberal arts school, which drew me in, but with a solid engineering program that recruited Rose (technically she was recruited by the softball team, but she only wound up playing the first year before deciding that building robots was more fun. Which, like, fair). 

After getting our degrees, we both decided to stick around a bit longer– me to pursue a photography fellowship, and Rose to complete her Engineering program. Since we were no longer undergrads and thus locked out of on-campus housing, we sought out a rental. Turned out that our college town, sleepy bedroom community that it was, was fucking expensive. A short commute made rent bearable, and that’s how we wound up living in the not-even-a-speck-on-the-map town of Wild Haven. 

For Rose, it was a stroke of serendipity. As much as we’d always talked about moving to the proverbial Big City one day, she fell in love with Wild Haven’s quiet charm and simple way of living. Not that her life had only been sunshine and songbirds, but she found peace there. 

Me, not so much. I lasted a whopping ten months before I packed my bags and vowed never to set foot in that hellhole again. And for the past five years, I’d done a damn good job at keeping my word. 

As my bus pulled into the station, I rationalized that there was still time to back out. I could hop the next bus and be in Dorval by the end of the day. Hell, my hometown was only a few hours away, and I was way overdue to give Mum a visit. Sweet lady that she was, she’d probably insist on driving up here to get me, so I’d only have to hide out for a little–

“Harper!”

My half-cocked escape plans evaporated as the only person in the universe who could talk me into things I didn’t want to do came barreling at me. I barely had time to drop my backpack before I was enveloped in Rose’s arms, burying my face in her cascade of dark hair. She squeezed me tightly, and something inside me relaxed, just a little. Whatever I might feel about the local geography, Rose was home. 

When she finally pulled back she didn't go far, taking my face in her hands and turning me this way and that. I had what was for me a decent amount of stubble given that I hadn’t shaved in the two days it took to get here (bus stop bathrooms are for essential business only), but otherwise I was still the usual me. 

“OK, you’re acting like we haven’t seen each other in years,” I teased her. Her brown eyes narrowed, but any genuine irritation was undercut by her still-beaming smile. 

“I mean, it kind of has been forever. I never made it down to see you in Madena,” she reminded me. 

Rose always had a standing invitation to wherever I lay my head, and over the years we’d had a damn good run of visits. Jotting down the spots I’d take Rose when she finally visited was what had made a lot of the places I’d lived bearable. 

But travel and adventure hadn’t been what Rose needed this past year. I understood that, just as I understood what it meant when the tiniest frown bowed her mouth. I took her hands and squeezed them, and the little crease over her nose eased. 

“Considering how often you’ve come to me over the years, I suppose it’s possible that I owed you this one visit,” I said with a cheeky smile. “Even if you are dragging me back to the most boring place in the country.”

She gave me another hug, squeezing me even tighter. Something told me I should’ve come back to her sooner. 

We retrieved my duffels from the cargo hold before heading out towards the parking lot. Rose’s car was not difficult to pick up as, firstly, it was the same little blue hatchback she’d had in college. Secondly, there were only four other cars in the entire lot. Even though this was the main bus depot serving half a dozen nearby towns. We were genuinely in the middle of nowhere. Good god.

“You know, I think you’ll actually be impressed by how Wild Haven has grown,” Rose said as she navigated us out of the bus lot. Sometimes it was like she could read my thoughts, and it’d be damn spooky if I didn’t love her so much. 

“Oh yeah? Are we talking high-rises? A functional public transportation system? Hell, a mall?”

The dense, untouched forest that surrounded the single-lane highway Rose pulled onto suggested that the corporate developers still neither knew nor cared that this region existed. The tongue Rose stuck out at me confirmed it. 

“Yeah, like a mall would be the thing to get you hype about being back here. I’m talking about the food scene, obviously. Wild Haven has quite a bit to offer now.”

“I’m sure it does,” I said drily. 

Rose knew I’d lived in some of the best food cities in the country, if not the world. Fun fact, you don’t have to have a ton of money to dine well if you work at the right places and know the right people. You could be a guy like me scraping literal change together for his bus ticket and still know what it’s like to eat oysters and drink champagne (I do prefer burgers and beer, but it’s nice to know my options). 

“You’re gonna eat your sarcasm when I take you to the Bread & Bean,” Rose said confidently. “Best coffee in town, and cinnamon rolls as big as your ego.”

Hmm. I wasn’t not intrigued by that. 

“And of course, there’s the Haven.”

“Like… the town?” I asked. 

“No, it’s the gastropub on Main Street. Used to be O’Finnley’s Pub, if you remember? We went there a couple times when– ah, well it was basically the only bar in town for ages.”

I gave a noncommittal grunt of acknowledgement, and Rose moved on. I kind of remembered a dingy local pub, but it was tied to memories of equally dingy pool halls, the occasional sweaty club, and an endless cycle of house parties. All a little fuzzy, and I was more than happy to leave them that way. 

“Anyways, it got sold a couple years ago when this amazing new brewery popped up. Remember I told you about it?  They moved their entire operation to this farmhouse on the edge of town, then bought the pub and turned it into basically a tasting room and kitchen. You’re absolutely gonna flip for it, the beer is so good, and—“

I didn't drift off on purpose, but it was like something in me just knew when we’d passed into the Wild Haven town limits. The endless line of trees rushing by the car window hadn’t faltered one bit, but all my instincts started screaming at me to bail, to just get out and hitch as far as I could get in the opposite direction. 

Which was… melodramatic, even for me. 

It wasn’t like the town itself was evil. I’d never admit it to anyone, but it was sort of cute, in a provincial way. Your classic snow-capped mountain town with a little brick-lined Main Street, and residential neighborhoods with houses set so far back you had to know where you were going to get there. 

On the flip side, that deep-woods feel could also be sort of eerie. Not that I’d ever spent much time among the trees when I’d lived here, but even walking around you’d feel the press of nature everywhere, a prickle almost like being watched. Getting home at night had always been spooky, with little traffic and no streetlights. Obviously I never actually saw anything go bump in the night, but it always felt like it could. 

Of course, it was entirely possible that a lot of that had just been the anxiety of a boy properly out on his own, as an adult, for the first time. I’d gotten a hell of a lot better at finding my feet in the world since then, and I wasn’t about to let being here mean backsliding. It would only be for a few months, anyways. I’d help Rose throw her whirlwind of a wedding, and then I’d be on the first bus back to civilization. 

Until then, all that mattered to me was Rose. My best friend, who I’d been actively not listening to for long enough that we’d reached the end of our journey. 

“Here we are,” she said, genuine fondness infusing her tone. “Home sweet home.”