Hayley hadn’t meant to do that. She really hadn’t meant to lose her cool, or to be so short with Alisha. It had just happened. She couldn’t stand looking at the faces of her peers, the way they doubled over in full bellied laughs at the expense of that poor boy made her angry; in her head, she could only hear the echo of her father’s vicious laughter every time he spoke to her:
‘How do you not know this?’ He had laughed one evening when she had asked for his assistance with some homework. ‘You better figure it out yourself, you stupid brat.’ He had said, tapping the side of her head with his chilled bottle of Luna Fye. ‘Or I’m gonna knock you hard enough to remember.’ He had promised.
That was the first and last time she had ever mustered the courage to ask him for his assistance and wh
