——Aaron
After our little one-on-one talk, Dad never left the house, and I kept myself busy with school stuff. I always come home after dinner to make sure he wasn’t around to greet me with another fit.
Marcy’s had become my go-to after-school place because when I decided to avoid Sam, I eventually avoided my so-called friends too. Especially Nicole. They were collective reminders of what kind of a person I used to be—a dickhead.
“Shouldn’t you be at Ricky’s with your cool friends?”
I looked up from my table and saw a familiar face. Chloe was grinning down at me, and there was something surprising about her appearance. It wasn’t her pale and fragile look that surprised me but the bump in her belly.
Is she pregnant? Is that why I haven’t seen her around school anymore?
Beside her wa
