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classes….” Mom’s face took on that look it always does when Darby’s name comes up. Kind of anxious and faraway.
    “I don’t think so. She acted like she wanted to.” I picked up another towel to help her dry the dishes.
    I watched my mom closely as she plunged her hands back into the sink and started to scrub at a glass dish. “We just don’t want to overtax her. And really, I think we all need to be more careful. We have to stick to the schedule. We can’t be lax. You know?”
    I nodded but didn’t speak. It did no good to try and reassure Mom, because we all knew that no matter how things looked, none of us could really know what was under the surface.
    I decided the best course was to change the subject. “Love the hair, by the way.”
    “Ha. Ha.” She touched the pencil she had used to create a messy bun on top of her head. “Occupational hazard.” She gave me a small smile, then added, “I was in your room today.”
    “Yeah.”
    “What happened to all the pictures?”
    “Todd and I broke up. For good. Finis.”
    “Want to elaborate?”
    “Nothing interesting to tell. Is Dad home yet?”
    “No. That’s it?”
    “I never got to see him. It just got to be kind of pointless, you know?”
    “You and your invisible guy. Well, maybe now you’ll date someone your dad and I can actually meet.”
    “Yeah, maybe. I’m going to finish my homework.” I went upstairs to my room, which still looked odd without the pictures. Mom and Dad had long called Todd the “invisible guy” because somehow, every time they were about to meet him, something would happen and he wouldn’t be able to come. Funny how that always happened.
    At school, I’d told people that Todd lived next door to my grandparents and that we were super serious. My family thought Todd was a kid from school who had moved away soon after we got together, and that it wasn’t very serious. I usually got a headache just thinking about it all. But now I was free. Totally free.
    I dropped onto my bed and stared at the ceiling, thoughts of Liam interspersed with thoughts of what Tess was facing at home. Tess had sworn me to secrecy years ago, and I had never really considered breaking the promise until recently. Not only because things were obviously getting worse, but because Tess was growing more and more determined to handle it all on her own. Being a mother to Ashley, taking care of their house, making sure that no one found out that her mom was always either drunk or passed out, and still trying to be a great cheerleader, friend, and—until she dumped Alex—girlfriend.
    Tess was amazing, but she was showing signs of stress. For one, she was losing weight. Tess had always been slender and strong—cheerleading did that to a girl—but lately her face seemed thinner, and her uniform was just a bit too big. Not enough for anyone but me to notice probably.
    But what scared me was the custody thing with Ashley. Tess had never talked about that. She was making long-range plans as if her mother was never going to improve. As if she had decided that this is what life was going to be, and she was going to have to make the best of it.
    On top of that was the fact that her best friend was a huge liar—it made it all that much more depressing. Of course, things were going to be different for me now.
    I just wished that things could be different for her, too.

CHAPTER 5

    It was B Day and Friday, and I was completely conflicted. I wanted to avoid Liam, embarrassed by whatever information he had heard about me. But I didn’t want to just walk away either. Did I have the nerve to ask him out? A simple, casual date? Supposedly people did that sort of thing all the time. And I couldn’t shake Tess’s admonition that if Liam decided to date someone like Lexi, they may never break up. Plus, I was thinking about him nonstop. What was so special about him, anyway? He was just another guy, but totally not at the same time.
    It made no sense.
    If I asked