The world can’t hate me that much, can it?
“Andrews, Mercer, and—” he glances up at the class, and I pray the following words out of his mouth are Bowman. Theyhaveto be Bowman. “—Marshall.”
I close my eyes, releasing a long anguishing breath. You’ve got to be kidding me. Out of all the people in this class, I had to get stuck withhim—the one person I’ve done such a good job at avoiding.
“Which leaves Bowman and Sanderson.” He puts the paper back on his desk, looking up at us. “Alright, guys, I’ll give you five minutes to find your partners.”
I don’t even have to open my eyes to feel another pair already on me.
This is going to be a long year.
two
Declan
My family’s falling apart.
I can’t pinpoint when it started; maybe it was back in high school, but I know it’s getting harder to hide. It’s excuse after excuse from my mom and later and later nights from my dad.
They act like Brinley and I aren’t old enough to figure out what’s happening. I was only home twice this summer, and I don’t think we were all together either time. And whenever we’d question it, it was the same old excuses.
Your mom had a nasty headache this morning.
Your dad has a new project at work, which means later hours.
Your dad forgot his laptop at work.
Traffic was terrible getting home.
Your mom just ran out to the store for dinner.
Someone didn’t show up to work, so your dad had to stay and finish up.
Most of the excuses we heard were about our dad having to stay late at work. But I don’t think he’s at work; he’s just avoiding coming home.
There’s a knock on my door, and then Brinley peeks her head in. “Hi.”
“Hey, what’s up?” I force a yawn to make it seem like I’ve been asleep.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she shuts the door behind her, “can I stay in here tonight?”
“Yeah,” I say, grabbing a pillow from my bed and throwing it on the floor. I climb out of bed and grab a blanket from my closet. “You can take my bed; I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“Do you think they’re splitting up?” Brinley wonders, crawling into my bed.
God, I hope so.
“I don’t know, Brin.” I shake my head, lying on the floor and focusing on my ceiling.
What I do know is they’ve been trying to portray this happy family for years when I can’t remember being one.
“At least you weren’t stuck here all summer,” she says.
“I was training.”
“I know.”
Even if I didn’t train this summer, I haven’t lived at home since before college. I live with some of my buddies in a house near campus that one of the guy’s family used to rent out before letting us move in. It just made more sense.
