‘Are you sure there’s nothing else going on?’ Dad asked.

I told Dad to pull over. And then I said, ‘Mum was drunk the other night,’ and started crying again.

‘Oh darling,’ he said, reaching across and hugging me.

It all came tumbling out of me: ‘She was really drunk and she came to Katie’s place really late in the night and we had to call the ambulance because her boyfriend had hit her.’

‘What?!’ Dad said, not angry with me but surprised. Then he really listened as I told the story, how I felt at the time and how it was making me feel now. At some point I caught my breath and Dad asked, ‘What do you want to do, Phoebe?’

‘I want to go home,’ I answered. ‘And I also want to go to that meeting thing that Caitlin told me about,’ I told him, a blubbering mess.

‘Oh, bub,’ he said, holding me. ‘Sure, we’ll get you to the meeting. And don’t worry, we’ll get through this.’

I sat there until I stopped crying, hoping that Dad’s promise that I’d get through how I was feeling wasn’t just another empty promise like the ones Mum kept making. I wanted to believe that things would be okay, even though I’d lost my belief in things ever working out.

I assured Dad that I’d be okay and encouraged him to go back to work. I felt guilty enough that he had to come and deal with the consequences of my outburst and didn’t want to mess up the whole of his day. I knew he always had a lot to do.

At lunchtime, Caroline called me. ‘That was really terrible what Matilda said. Are you okay?’

‘Yeah, I’m okay,’ I said, ‘just really embarrassed. I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that.’

‘Maybe not, although I understand why you did.’

‘Everyone will hate me.’

Caroline laughed. ‘No, they won’t. We’ve all grown up together having fights with each other at some stage. We get it.’

‘Really?’

‘Absolutely. Hey, do you think we should still see Trent’s mum this afternoon or leave it? You’ve had a big day.’

I thought about it for a moment. I was emotionally drained, but decided I might as well get all of the hard stuff out of the way on one day. ‘Yeah, I reckon we should do it.’

‘Meet you at the bus stop after school?’

‘See you then,’ I told her.

When I approached the bus stop later that afternoon, I could see that Ethan, Hayley and Ashley were waiting with Caroline. I was nervous that they might be furious with me. I kept my head down as I walked up and the next thing I knew they were all hugging me.

‘That was wild!’ Ethan said. ‘Never have I seen a fight in class like that before,’ he said excitedly.