Chapter 17When we got home, Kyer and I messaged back and forth on our consoles until my mother told me it was time for bed. I sent him one last note—the sideways heart he had sent me the night before. Then I set my console aside and went into the bathroom to change.
My mother was waiting, pills in hand, when I returned to my room. “You’re getting good at this,” she said, turning away to straighten my bed sheets. Trusting me to take my pills.
I downed two and palmed the others, then crushed the paper cup and gave it back to her. “I’ve been taking them all my life. Why stop now?”
“That’s the spirit.” Her smile saddened me, and the pills hidden in my fist felt slimy against my skin.
I had deliberately not given her back the cup of water. Now it served as an excuse to return to the bathroo
