Noelle
I opened my door to a tearful and angry little boy. I pulled him inside and pulled him into a hug before I even asked what was wrong. I didn’t know if that was the right thing or the wrong thing to do - no one had ever hugged me as a kid. But I’d watched Beth hug Lucy like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Trevor clung to me for a long time. I didn’t let him go until he released me first. He backed away and wiped his nose on his sleeve.
“Wanna come sit down and tell me what’s wrong?”
I suspected that maybe Robert had come down on the kid too hard over the phone prank. We sat down together in one over-stuffed chair, and I waited.
But what he said next was not what I expected. “My dad hates me.”
The words made my heart cringe inside my chest, because I’d had the same
