I woke up the next morning in my bed. I did not know how I got there, and for a split second, forgot about the whole situation. When I remembered, I felt nauseous. I had to go see London. I jumped out of my bed, got dressed as fast as I could, and ran downstairs to see if my mom was up. She was— sitting at her usual spot at the kitchen table drinking her coffee and reading the newspaper.

“Good morning, sweetheart. How are you feeling?”

“Okay, but I have to go see London.”

“I had a feeling you were going to say that, and I think that you are doing the right thing. Do you want me to drive you or are you going to walk?”

“I’ll walk. Thanks, though.”

“Okay, honey. Be careful and let me know when you get there.”

“I will. See you later.”

It was normally about a ten minute walk to London’s house, but today, I made it a little longer. I needed time to clear my head and relax. While I was walking, though, I felt myself getting nervous as I thought about what I was going to say to London when I saw her. I had what felt like a million possibilities in my head, but none of them seemed to be quite right. When I could not think of anything, I resorted to just letting myself say whatever I thought we both needed to hear when I got there, which I would not truly know until I was in the moment.

Before I knew it, I was standing in front of London’s front door. Usually, I would just walk in, but I decided to knock. Mrs. Scott, London’s mother, quickly answered the door.

“Hi, Mrs. Scott,” I said

Mrs. Scott smiled, hugged me, and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh, Paris! London is going to be so happy that you’re here! She really needs you right now.”

I could hear in her voice that she wanted to cry.

“That’s what I thought,” I replied, “I really needed to see her, too.”

“She’s up in her room. You know the way.”

“Thanks.”

I went up to London’s room and slowly opened her door. She was sitting hunched over at her desk doing homework, (shocker, I know, but it made me smile) and all I could see was her long, curly hair. As I began to walk in, London heard me and turned around. As soon as she saw me, her big, blue eyes filled up with tears. She ran over to me, got on her tiptoes since she was still a whole three inches shorter than me, hugged me as tight as she could, and cried like I had never seen her cry before. I did not say anything. I just hugged her even tighter than she was hugging me to the point where I felt that I was going to break her tiny body, and told myself that I would not let her go until she wanted to. I realized that sometimes, the most powerful thing you can say is absolutely nothing at all.