14
After a restless night, Laura pulled on her running gear and headed out into the morning air. A fine mist of rain fell feather-like from the gloom overhead, but it wasn’t enough to deter her.
After Tom’s admission last night, Laura was bombarded by emotion. She felt seventeen again—naïve, stupid, emotional, and irrational. She kept trying to summon memories from that year. Memories that could, in hindsight, make her see what was happening. Maybe Tom did try to tell her and she just didn’t listen. The only night she remembered Tom acting a little strange was the night of Rachel’s eighteenth birthday.
The lawn tennis clubhouse had been lit up like a Christmas tree, straining with the weight of bodies and loud music that it was seldom used to. Black, purple, and white helium balloons cl
