Home is Where You Are

Chapter 10

"Shh, it's okay." I run my fingers through her hair. "Here, sit down." I whisper.

I get her some water and a blanket.

She takes a few sips of the water and curls into a ball on my couch, sobbing.

I get her a trash can to puke in, too. I sit with her, rubbing her back.

Liam was right.

He was right about her. That she'd figure it out.

But he's not here.

He probably never will be, either.

"I ruined everything." She shudders. "I hate myself, sissy."

Sissy.

She called my sissy.

I take a deep breath, willing away tears.

"No you didn't. Don't hate yourself. Trust me kid, I know how it is."

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She passed out on my couch. I went to be around five in the morning, and I woke up at noon.

She was still there.

She used my phone to call Mum. Mum texted me at seven in the morning to tell me Izzy was missing.

Izzy told Mum and Dad everything over the phone, except that she planted the weed. They came and picked her up after I fed her.

They didn't even come inside.

IZZY'S POV

"Guys?" I say quietly in the car.

Nobody is really speaking.

"Yeah?" Mum asks quietly.

"I planted the weed in Abby's suitcase." I whisper.

Silence.

"Izzy, are you fucking kidding me?" Dad asks.

"I'm sorry."

He takes a deep breath.

"You let us be angry at your sister for a fucking month?"

"I didn't want to get in more trouble."

"That's so selfish." Mum says.

We're turning onto our street now.

Dad jerks the wheel roughly, turning us around.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

No answer.

"Are you taking me to jail?" I ask. "Or rehab?"

Still no answer.

Dad is speeding.

He's so mad. He's going eighty in a forty.

He goes flying past an elementary school.

He comes to a halt outside of somebody's house.

I know where we car.

There's a black Nissan Altima sitting in the driveway, along with a truck and another small car.

When I was eleven, I used to sit outside and wait for the Altima to pull up.

That meant Abby was home.

The Nissan is Liam's car.

"Oh god." I say. "No, I'm not telling Liam."

"Either you tell him or I do. And if I tell him, I'll take you to boarding school."

I'm shaking.