"You know," Elena said. "When I first took off, I ... wasn't entirely sure that I wasn't going to give up and come home within a couple of weeks. And I didn't want to lose my place, if I did."

Even if it was a shitty hole-in-the-wall. It was hers, and she liked this landlord. She'd had a place for a week or two before that, but quickly found out that the rent was cheaper for young, female renters, and that coincidentally, the landlord needed to enter the apartment at all hours for maintenance work. No, thank you.

"So I paid up through August, just in case."