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She should answer it, let her know she’s okay and that she’ll be back at school on Monday Especially after ushering her friends out the door yesterday at GG’s wake

Abby gnawed on her lip, deciding against it She wasn’t in the mood to tell her she was fine when she wasn’t, and Abby didn’t want to talk about how she really felt And Cammie would insist she did

Pushing the ignore button, she dropped the phone onto heraside the voice in her head that told her she rong for not answering But could anyone blaht now? She wasn’t ready to act as though she was okay, and anything else would lead to how she was really doing No a about how she was broken inside would s until she could handle them

Abby blinked her tired eyes as her thoughts drifted to GG’s letters and the journal, and for a moment, she wondered if she had dreamt it all

She swung her legs over the bed and shuffled her way to her closet, where she retrieved her bag and fingered the book inside, confir it back down, she turned and squinted at her alarm clock

Ten o’clock She slept in, an ano around in the kitchen, flipping pancakes, and singing If everyone had yet to wake, his ear-piercing rendition of Sinatra was enough to et up and close your door to drown out the noise But today, nothing—no scent of sweet breakfast cakes and

With a feeling of dread, Abby threw on a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt As an afterthought, she hurried to the closet and retrieved theit across her body She felt better with it on her instead of it hidden in her room

With a fresh wave of determination to uncover the truth, she headed for the stairs As she descended, she heard voices Though they whispered, the harsh tone conveyed an argument Part of her wanted to turn back, to avoid any involve stou journal entries

Her feet hit the landing, and she halted as she came face to face with therandfather was dressed for the day in pants and a t-shirt, her mother still wore her pajamas

Her grandfather shook his head, his face flushed, and his Gerer “I can take care of o home I’m no burden and—”

“Dad, I want to Please, don’t argue I don’t want you going over to that e by yourself Besides, you’re not even supposed to be driving Your eyesight is terrible”

Her grandfather pointed a bony finger at her mother “You think I can’t take care of enerate”

Abby noted the lanced to the floor They hadn’t noticed her yet Hovering at the botto around and sneaking back up the stairs

“We do want you here” She began to turn as her mother continued, “And Abby would love to have you around”

At the sound of her name, Abby’s head snapped up She swiveled back to face the to her with her arms