I had no idea what Robin had in mind, but when he took my hand, I was ready to follow him to the end of the world and beyond. I always was. Once we got to his place, he went up to the attic and carried down two shoe boxes, all while saying nothing. With the boxes, he went into his bedroom, and I followed. Then I watched him set his loot down on the bed and pull another box out of his dresser.

Finally, I couldn't stop myself from asking. "What's all this?"

"Hang on." He left the bedroom, only to reappear with a stack of blank paper in his hand. "I hope this is gonna be enough," he muttered to himself.

"Enough for what?"

He licked his lips and placed the paper on his desk before turning back to the boxes. Picking one up, he handed it to me. "Open it."

I did, curious what I would find inside.

Paper cranes.

Lots of paper cranes. Big ones, small ones, white ones, yellow ones, Paper cranes folded from newspapers. Paper cranes folded from exercise sheets, left in Robin's locker or secretly passed on in class... My mouth dropped and my heart beat painfully fast. I stared at the other two boxes I hadn't opened yet. "You kept them all?" I couldn't believe it. I'd folded so damn many paper cranes, how could he have kept them all? How hadn't he grown tired of them after the first two or three?

"Of course I did." Robin's smile was almost bashful. "You made these for me. And I figure we've got almost enough."

"Enough for what?" I asked again.

"For our wish." He took my arm and made me sit on the bed with him—not that I needed much convincing. Next he handed me a piece of paper. "We're gonna make Cooper feel better. Get folding, sunshine." There was that pet name again. When we were dating he said he liked to call me that because my life is dark without you in it. It made me feel warm to hear him say that, like he was my sun too.

I started folding the paper, not caring how silly this was from a rational point of view. Folding paper cranes wasn't going to grant us our wish, and even if it did, I doubted that we could reach a thousand. None of that mattered, though. What mattered was that Robin had kept my cranes. He'd treasured them. And now he'd given me something to do, a purpose.

A small part of me even believed that our wish could really come true. As long as Robin was by my side, it felt like anything was possible.

Next to me, he was folding his own piece of paper. For a few seconds, I watched him. He was doing it exactly right. "Where did you learn to do that?"

He scoffed, as if I'd asked him a silly question. "I've watched you often enough, don't you think?"

"Fair enough." I continued folding and so did he. My phone was in my pocket. If there were any updates on Cooper's status, the doctor would call me. I kind of wanted it to ring because I needed information, but I also didn't want it to ring because I didn't want to hear any bad news. "You think Cooper's going to be okay?" I asked once I'd made my first three cranes of the night. I lined them up next to the one Robin had finished.

"Of course he will be. Hang on." Robin rose from the bed and got a black felt tip pen from the desk. Then he picked up the paper crane he'd folded and wrote something on it before passing it to me. I turned it over in my hand to read the message.

Everything is going to be fine. :)

How often had I crafted cranes with similar messages for Robin? The way he returned the favor to me now when I needed him the most was almost too much for me to take without choking up.

"Hey," Robin handed me another piece of paper. "Just keep folding. We got this, okay?"

"How can you be so sure?" He hadn't seen the way my puppy looked at me when I had to leave him behind at the vet. My heart still hurt from that. I should have taken better care of him.

Robin shot me a thoughtful look. "I don't believe a lot of things," he said finally, "but if there's one thing I do believe it's that you deserve a happy ending. I'm not going to accept anything else."

His eyes were so sincere as he said that I didn't know how to respond. I glanced down at the paper in my hands, a million thoughts rushing through my mind all at once. Robin believed in a happy ending for me? "Then why don't you believe in a happy ending for yourself?" The words came pouring out of me before I could hold them back.

My friend's eyebrows climbed up his forehead. "What are you talking about?"

It was too late to take a step back now, wasn't it? Well, I didn't want to anyway. "You date all these assholes who don't treat you well and then once it all falls apart you blame yourself like you somehow deserve all that shit." My frustration came bursting out at me. I hated having to watch Robin do this to himself over and over again. Maybe my home life had damaged me, but I wasn’t the only one who needed to let go of the past.

Robin only stared at me. "I don’t do it on purpose you know," he said finally, quietly. "Don’t you think I’d love to be in a relationship with someone kind? A relationship that lasts? It’s not like I seek out assholes, it’s just…"

"You’re just attracted to the wrong kind of people?"

He licked his lips and stared down at his hands. "Not all people I like are bad."

Was he talking about me? He had to be, the way he refused to meet my gaze. "Give me another chance, Robin." More than anything, I wanted to be his happy ending. I hadn't trusted myself to be that for him before, but if we could help carry each other's baggage...

Robin looked at me for only a moment, but long enough that I could see the longing in his eyes. He wanted to say yes. When he got up from the bed instead, I nearly grabbed his arm to keep him with me. "I need to get some air," he said, running his hand through his hair before leaving me alone in the room.