"Yeah," Jamie chimed in. "I think you'll find we're pretty open-minded here. Seen a lot of strange shit in our day."
Roxanna sighed. "Some days, I feel like I never should have left Seattle," she muttered. "But noooo, I wanted the college experience. I wanted more freedom. I wanted to figure my life out." She pushed her pancakes around her plate morosely.
"I'm adopted," she began. "My father was never involved, and my mother apparently felt just maternal enough not to have an abortion. But I don't think she ever really wanted to take care of a child. She'd leave me with friends and neighbors, sometimes for days, and finally CPS was called when I was six. I bounced around the foster system, a different house every year. I landed with the Fieldings when I was 12, and they adopted me when I was 15. And I finally had a home, a real one."
She took another swig of coffee before continuing. "I came here last year for school, it went off without a hitch. I came back, and it's like things are unravelling. I acted like a complete idiot around some guy I met once, on Valetine's Day, of all days. And then, of all people, I run into my biological dad, and his wife. And they're both...people I pretty much want nothing to do with. And I wouldn't believe a word of what she told me, except...except...".
She trailed off, swallowing hard. "I could see them," she said quietly. "Ghosts, shades, whatever you want to call them. They held me there and I couldn't leave until she waved them off."