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CHAPTER 1

THEM’S THE BREAKS

Dillion

I toss another e There has to be an entire case’s worth underbed My ex-boyfriend used to drink diet soda in the ht because he didn’t like the taste of water but couldn’t afford any s in his teeth—as if diet soda is any better than the regular stuff

It was a weird habit I no longer have to worry about since he doesn’t live here anymore And in two days, neither will I We didn’t part on bad terms—it was an amicable breakup In fact, I’m less upset about the breakup than I a for over the last few years closed, and I’ indicator that the relationship wasn’t meant to last Still, it sucks to be down a job, a boyfriend, and, in two days, an apartment

What I’ at, is the suitcase that’s been stored under the bed for more than two years At this point, with the sheer nus—the woman who used to clean our apartment every other week never cleaned under the bed, and I et to it

I put -under-the-bed on hold whenthe call I’m not entirely sure I want to speak with anyone, especially since I’ve been procrastinating and left cleaning and packing until the eleventh hour

I sigh when it reaches the third ring and finally pick up It’s just my dad I wait for some kind of latent disappointment or sadness that it isn’t my ex, Jason, to follow, but there isn’t any Jason made a choice when he took the job back in his hometown in Connecticut, and I made mine when I decided not to follow

“Hey, Dad, what’s up?”

“Hey, kiddo You doing okay?”

He knows about the recent bu to find a new apart h for hi for a visit in a couple of days, which honestly was the plan until the apartment I’d hoped to reat Is everything okay? You don’t usually call htstand—“ten on a Thursday ”

“Uh, well, Billy had an accident”

My heart is suddenly in ood at staying out of trouble’s way “Is he okay?”

My dad is quick to reassure ht”

Just because Dad says Billy’s all right doesn’t necessarily ood at downplaying situations Making it sees aren’t as bad as they truly are Like two years ago, when he andto make endshow close they were to being bankrupt I didn’t find out about that until well after the fact, when they were back on track and no longer in the red

When I asked hi, he told me he’d been afraid I’d think it meant I needed to come home and help out At the tiether in a cute one bedrooenuinely don’t knohat I would’ve done if he had told rateful that I didn’t have to find out

“What kind of accident was it? Please tell ed up’ mean?” I put my phone on speaker, toss it on my unmade bed, and pick up a stack of folded clothes before riffling through them to make sure they’re not froo in et it out fro to be worn in the next couple of days, so I toss them in a box labeled CLOTHES

I need to do so stressed-out-pacing mode

“It wasn’t on-site; he was in a car accident He was on his own, and no one else was involved, but he broke his ankle and totaled the truck” My dad’s words are clipped, almost rehearsed

Billy works with my dad and my uncle They own the only construction co from snow removal in the winter, to lawnall year long In the past few years they began subcontracting out some of the trades because the rich city dwellers on the north side of the lake have started hiring theer than they already are