Joel stared at the Cream of Wheat box. Disodium phosphate added for quick cooking.
“Joel?”
“Yep.”
“Is that okay?”
He looked up. “Does it matter?”
“Honey…”
“It’s okay.” No fights today.
“Is everything okay?”
He wanted so badly to tell her about yesterday, about what happened to Dhatri, about the awful things he did alone in his room, after school, while thinking about Brad. But his instinct was telling him not to. “Yep.”
“Joel, I know that ‘yep’ of yours means no.” His mom sat down. “Talk to me.”
“It’s just everything is…everything is sucky.”
His mom sighed. “Oh, Joel, I know. I can’t smile and say everything is going to turn out okay. I know this is hard. My working double shifts, and our living here…”
“Then why is Aunt Jen coming? We’re going through enough.”
“She’ll help out
