“Please don’t tell anyone,” he said. I didn’t look him in the eye. Instead I stared at the tree. It was right over his shoulder. When I’m nervous I do that. At work, some customers have commented on it. “Are you talking to me?” they would ask. Of course, I’d reply. I’d be serving them at a table. Who else would I be talking to?

“I trust you,” he continued. I nodded. I thought about my parents. In a couple of decades, they may not be alive. It was an awful thought, but at least once a year, the thought would pop up in my mind. I would call them the next day, just to make sure everything was all right.

“I used to think everything would be all right,” he said. Same here. I was struggling with student loans, paying for car insurance, but I knew that one day, everything would pay off. Plus, my parents paid for car registration and my cell phone bill. Every once in awhile, they would help me with rent, if I ever overspent. What great parents! I could always count on them.

“I can’t keep living like this.”