9781250209153

“Is everything okay?” Mom asks when I trail listlessly through the front
door a full hour later. I meant to come straight home but ended up sobbing
in my car until I felt light-headed. I’m grateful to have both my parents
here, since Mom is working remotely today and Dad only worked a half
day at the clinic. I know it’s time to tell them everything, and I just want to
get it over with.
I swallow. It takes everything in me not to start crying again. “I messed
up.”
Mom and Dad swoop over to me. Daphne looks up from the couch,
wide-eyed. “What’s wrong?” Dad asks. “Are you hurt? Are you safe?”
“I’m fine,” I say tonelessly. “But I’ve been lying about something.”
My parents trade looks. “Okay,” Mom says in her steady, soothing
voice. “Let’s sit down and talk about it.”
Mom and Dad settle themselves on the couch together, a united front,
and wait expectantly. I curl up on the couch across from them. Daphne
places BooBoo in my lap, but before she can sit down next to me, Mom and
Dad ask her to leave. She gives me a bewildered look and trudges upstairs
to her room.
Once her door snaps closed, Mom and Dad focus all their attention on
me. And before I lose my nerve, I start talking.
I tell them everything. The anguish I felt after Tally transferred. The
attention I got when I carpooled with Irene. The plan I concocted to “date”
her and the summer job savings I used to pay her deductible. The ruse I
dangled over Tally’s head. The deep confusion about my new feelings for
Irene, and the feelings I still have for Tally, and whether I deserve to be
loved by either one of them. And just when I’ve almost covered everything,
Thora gets home from the lunch shift, takes one look at us in the family
room, and asks, “Who died?”
Mom takes a deep breath. We all know she and Thora don’t keep things
from each other, especially not where Daphne and me are concerned. It’s a
remnant from the time when it was just the two of them. I already know
Mom will tell Thora about me even if I don’t tell her myself.
“Come sit,” Mom says, her voice carefully controlled. She turns and
bellows upstairs for Daphne, who opens her door immediately.