Jade

Zach didn’t come home.

I wasn’t home early, either, because I went to my friend’s place after school for a while, but I got back before Dad and Stepmom arrived, and I thought we could put our heads together and put more thought into the competition. I wasn’t entertaining other, less innocent thoughts, or I at least tried not to.

After half an hour of waiting, I gave him a call. He picked up on the second ring.

“What’s up?”

“I’m alone at home, when do you think you can get here? I was looking a little more into the competition and some possible recipes we could try. It’ll be a bit costly, but if we can, we should decide on something and practice it a bit once, would that be okay?”

He sighed. “I left for home ages ago. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about too, but my aunt is sick, and Mom has her phone off because she’s at work. I had to go see her, I’m sorry.”

“Oh,” I murmured, shoulders slumped in disappointment. “How long do you think you’ll take?”

“I don’t know; she’s not