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I reached for the heers “Not entirely”

“Not entirely?” My ive you a black eye?”

“Well, it’s not really a black eye, just a little bruising” What was I saying? I wanted them to feel sorry for me, and I wanted the blame on Carson

Balance I needed to find balance, which usually rested soround

“He hit me with a basketball”

“On purpose?” Mo her arms over her chest

“Well,” I drawled, “it was et my attention, but his aim was off, and he hit me square in the face”

“And your part in all this was?” My father asked

“Um… The impact kind of blinded me for a moment I was so surprised, and it hurt pretty bad, so I stury rage “And I intended to shove him, but somehow my hands went around his neck instead” I winced

Woas really winning at this lying thing

“You’re trying to say you accidentally tried to choke him?” My mother asked, brows raised

I hesitated This sounded like a trick question One that could get me into more trouble

“It was er “Also an accident”

My parents glanced at each other, and I swore for a moment, I saw a spark of a And if this were five years ago, maybe they would’ve But not any, least not with each other, which extended to amation of their love? I was merely a reminder of what once was Nowadays, if one was happy, the other was automatically ry, the other lost their appetite It was exhausting Most days I wondered how they were still standing

“Mrs Parks said she handled it and that the two of you are doing a peer remediation project?” Dad asked, and really, the project was perfect because judging by his rigid stance, he wanted to punishhe couldn’t entirely do if I needed to meet up with Carson to work on the project, and if I just so happened to run into Ethan on the ell…