49

Then again, I also didn’t want to understand.

With my clothes and my phone charger in a bag, I made my way into the kitchen. I heard D.J. race out of our driveway, peeling out like he thought he was hot shit. I knew announcing to my mother I was going away for the weekend could go one of two ways. She’d either wave me out the door while she nursed her hangover with another beer, or she’d chew me out until I got fed up enough to slip out the door myself.

But after an entire week of detention, I didn't care if the woman tried strapping me down to keep me home. I was fucking going to this sleepover.

I peeked around the corner. “I’m going to spend the weekend at Allison’s.”

Mom sighed. “That’s fine, honey. You’ll be home Sunday?”

“Yep.”

“All right. Well, maybe next week you and I can have an old-fashioned girls’ night? Like how we used to?”

I studied my mother and how rough she looked. The hickeys on her neck. Her knotted, disheveled hair. The way her shoulders slouched as she sat at the