Moving was probably the best solution, I just hated admitting it. A new school with new teachers, a new curriculum and new students to navigate sounded exhausting.

“I get it,” was all I could muster. I ignored the eggs and nibbled on the toast, wincing when it hit the acid vat that was my stomach. Mom kept stroking my forearm, and I let her curl her fingers around mine between bites.

“You’ll have the summer, at least? And it’s not far. You’ll see Devi.”

I glanced toward my bedroom door, hearing the vague rustling of human stirring within. Devi groaned and something thudded. I hoped it wasn’t her body hitting the floor. “Yeah, I will. Once she’s back from Connecticut.”

Mom followed my gaze to the groaning on the other side of the apartment. “Should I make her some breakfast, do you think?”

“I don’t know yet. Let me check...”

...if she’s still drunk.

Mom rolled her eyes and got up to drop two more pieces of bread into the toaster. “Bread is probably a good start,” she said, casting a sly look my way. “Lots of water, then aspirin. Probably some grease for lunch to suck up the nastiness. Steak and cheeses, maybe. Did you have a good time last night?”

I thought back to Aaron and Samantha and inevitably, Jack and his amazing bouncing truck. Not having his number bugged me. For the hours we’d been together, he’d been a ton of fun, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. “All in all, yes? A few hiccups, but it wasn’t bad. I met a guy but forgot to get his number.”

“That sucks. Maybe someone else can get it for you.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I said.

Except no one did.

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

“So that’s the story. Surprise, everything is terrible forever,” I said to Devi, rounding out my sad moving-in-with-Mormor tale. I wanted to talk about Jack, too, and fill Devi in on my rebound hookup, but Mom was floating around the apartment and I was pretty sure she didn’t want to hear about her kid’s sex life.

Devi blinked at me over her buttered toast, the only indication she’d drowned in a vat of strawberry wine the matching mascara smears beneath her eyes. She’d slept for six hours and miraculously emerged without a hangover, the witch. I kind of hated her for it. “It’s only one town over, so that’s good.”

“Well, yeah.” I shifted in my seat, cringing when my own stomach let out a shrieky wail. I was still battling the next-day demons. “But we won’t get to go to classes together anymore.”

“True, but we don’t hang much beyond lunch, anyway.”

“I know.”