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rode in silence for a while. I wanted to get her smile back.
    While sitting at a traffic light, I saw her dab at the corner of her eye. She was looking at the Waffle House where we always used to eat with my dad after church.
    It’s worse than I thought. Here goes nothing
. “I met someone. A guy.” She turned to look at me. “Trent. His name is Trent.”
    That’s all it took. I had her distracted, even if it was only for a little while.

    I tried my best to pay attention to the pastor, but I was still worried about my mom.
    My mind drifted back to shortly after my dad had left.
    Bri and I had followed him from work one evening when he first moved out. I hadn’t been to his new place yet. Following him was how I’d found out where it was. We watched him come and go every day for about a week. I didn’t think he’d left my mom for someone else, but I wanted to make sure. We didn’t notice anything unusual or suspicious. I reported our findings to my mom.
    I thought it would make her happy to be reassured that my dad wasn’t seeing anyone. She wasn’t happy at all, though. In fact she was furious with me for following him. She said, “He has a dangerous job. Stop dragging Brianne into all of this. I don’t want either of you getting hurt!”
    I didn’t stop, and I needed Bri to drive me. I wish I had stopped, though. Not long after this, I saw a woman hanging around my dad. Bri assured me it was probably work related. I wanted to believe her, so I never asked my dad, and I never told my mom.
    Before leaving church I said an extra-special prayer for my mom and one for my dad too.
    I spent most of the day with my mom. It was nice; we hadn’t done this in a while. We avoided the Waffle House for breakfast and opted for China Garden for lunch.
    That evening Bri picked me up so we could get one last workout in before school. “Tell me about your date with Cole,” I said. “I’ve been dying to hear all about it!”
    “We went to La Maria for dinner. He paid! He’s amazing and so hilarious. I think I’m in love!”
    I told her about my bumping into Trent at work.
    “No way? Is he stalking you?” she said with a laugh.
    “I wish. He wanted a coffee. We were about to close, so he asked if I wanted to go get coffee with him!”
    “You’re kidding! Then what?”
    I explained about Blake.
    She rolled her eyes. “What’s wrong with that boy? If he messes things up for you one more time, I’m going to go postal on him!”
    I smiled. “No doubt.”
    “That boy has it
bad
for you, but he needs to back off.”
    “I think he gets it now. We had a talk. Anyway, it all ended well.”
    Bri and I pulled up to the gym and headed inside. We were so excited about school starting in the morning that we opted to do the treadmill so we could talk. We discussed what we planned to wear, and of course Bri promised to drive me.
    “I think I’m going to start looking for a car,” I said.
    Bri’s face looked shocked then ecstatic. “For real, Ash? That’s great! I’ll help you find something!”
    As we chatted I scanned the room every now and then, hoping I’d see Trent. A few times I thought I saw him. I guess it was just wishful thinking.

VI
    40 %
    I couldn’t sleep that night. Even with the noise from my air purifier, it was too quiet. I finally had to get up and open my windows.
    The sound of chirping crickets drifted in with the breeze.
Much better
, I thought.
    It felt so nice that I stepped out onto the patio. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, so I looked through my telescope for a while. Then I watched lightning bugs flicker off and on in the distance until my eyelids were heavy with sleep.
    I tossed and turned all night and woke before my alarm. I felt like I never went completely unconscious.
    I jumped out of bed and closed my windows before my mom could see that I had slept with them up. I pulled on my favorite skinny jeans and a funky shirt from Forever 21. I applied my cosmetics and fluffed my hair,