Chapter 12

When I come home, I find that Rita and Sarah have torn apart the common area. Before I can even ask what’s going on Rita and Sarah are asking me to pick sides in a fight that I couldn’t care less about. I go into my room and call my mom for the first time in a long time. I ask her if I can come home this weekend and the excitement that I hear in her voice promises that it’s the right decision for now.

I quickly pack my things and grab my toiletries from my locker in the shared bathroom. I’m out the door and on the bus home before Rita and Sarah even realize I’ve left. I put my headphones on and try to imagine that nothing has changed since the last time I went home. I hum along to the song, and turn up the volume.

When we pull into my hometown I’m sleepy and cranky again even though it only took 2 hours to get here. My mom is waiting for me at the stop with a cold water bottle and the blanket my grandma crochet when I was a little girl. I wrap myself in the smell of my parents house