“Heck yeah! Let’s go!” Bonnie slammed her own door shut, started the ignition, and peeled out of the driveway with tires squealing so loud Caela knew there was absolutely no way the family inside the house wouldn’t hear.
Which was why it wasn’t exactly surprising when, twenty minutes later, they were being pulled over by the police, handcuffed, and placed in the back of two separate squad cars. Bonnie was no stranger to the local police and found the whole thing hilarious. Caela, on the other hand, had never been in real trouble before, and she was terrified.
Mr. Linman decided not to press charges since the car wasn’t damaged. But Caela’s mother wasn’t nearly so forgiving. After the officer brought her home and left her in the living room with her mother and Rob, they spent a solid twenty minutes screaming at her. Both of them were in their pajamas, having already been asleep.
Caela sat on the sofa, staring down at her lap and staying quiet, as she always did when they went off like this. Usually they’d calm down after a bit and send her to her room, where she’d hide out until the next day. But that wasn’t what happened this time.
“Iwant you out of my house.”
Caela looked up, surprised, at Rob, who was pointing a shaking finger at her. “Wait, what?”
“You heard me. I want you out!”
Caela looked over at her mother, somehow expecting her to laugh or shake her head, saying it was a joke. Not that she’d ever heard either of them tell a single joke in the months she’d lived with them. But she couldn’t fathom that they’d really kick her out. Not after Dad.
But her mother said nothing. She wouldn’t even look at Caela. She just silently nodded at Rob’s words.
Behind her, Caela saw a flicker of movement from down the hall. Sam must’ve woken up and slipped out of his bedroom to listen. Somehow, that was the worst part of all this.
“But … where am I supposed to go?” she asked.
“That’s not our problem,” Rob said. “We’ve shown you a kindness letting you stay here, even with all the trouble you cause. But we’re done.”
“A kindness? Not your problem? She’s mymother.”
Rob raged on, ignoring her. “In all the years we’ve been in this town, we’ve never had the police at our door. And we’re never going to again. Because you’re leaving. Tonight.”
“Tonight?”Caela gasped.
“You heard me. Tonight.”
Again, Caela looked to her mother. She was shaking now, a lump rising in her throat as she began to panic. “Mom?” she whispered, desperate for her to step in, to say something, to show some sense of motherly instinct toward her for once in her life.
But her mother shook her head. “We can’t have you setting this kind of example for Sam,” she said. “I’m sorry, Michaela. You need to go.”
Caela looked between them. “I … I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again, I promise. Please don’t make me go.”
But they didn’t answer.
They didn’t say anything to her at all after that. Just sat on the sofa in the living room, refusing to go back to bed until they were sure she was gone.
Caela’s eyes itched and her face burned as she moved around her room, gathering up as much of her clothing as she could and packing it into garbage bags, but she did not cry. All the while, she kept calling Bonnie. The police would have taken her home, too. She was sure she’d let her stay at her place. She was Caela’s best friend, after all. She was the reason Caela was in this situation.
Butthe phone rang and rang, and Bonnie never answered. So Caela sent her a text message.
Can you please call me?
“Michaela?”
She turned around and found Sam, in his Clifford pajamas and fuzzy red socks, standing in the doorway, watching her with his big brown eyes.
“You’re not really going, are you?” he asked.
She could feel a lump rising in her throat and forced it back down. “I’m sorry, buddy. I think I am.”
“Why?”
“Because I made your mom and dad really mad,” she said.
