I was putting the books away on the shelves while looking at Lilith with earbuds in her ears as she was sleeping on the small purple couch that she was on yesterday. The dark circles were deeper and darker than yesterday and her face is much paler than usual.
I was washing up in the bathroom, just out of the shower a half-an-hour after Lilith went back into the house – a towel wrapped around my waist and a toothbrush in my mouth – when I heard Ariel yelling at Lilith. I stopped what I was doing and listened to them. I could hear them, even though I was probably twenty or thirty feet away from them – including the walls of both of our houses.
“That’s not the point!” Ariel yelled, her high-pitched voice making me wince. “Every morning in school you’ll have bruises and cuts on your face. D
