Sydney

By sunset, I was lying on my stomach with books sprawled all over my bed, trying to drown myself with schoolwork nobody asked me for.

Biology sat open in front of me, History was somewhere near my feet, and my math notebook was bent beneath my elbow.

Probably because I’d rolled over it like three times already.

But that night, I told myself I’d focus—put everything from the last few days behind me and hope the reason for Tyler and Dean’s fight remained “a misunderstanding.”

Easy. Simple.

The house had been quiet since I got back from school, which wasn’t unusual because there was no way Mom was coming...