Caitlin said, ‘What is it, Mark?’ but I heard Dad walking towards my room and I panicked.

‘Phoebe!’ He was almost yelling. I scrunched up into a ball on my bed. ‘You were in an accident and you didn’t tell me?’

‘It was a little scrape up against another car,’ I said as he stood over my bed. He’s six foot, three inches and his head was way above me, but I could still see the vein pulsing in his forehead.

‘She was drink driving, wasn’t she?’

‘I don’t know, Dad,’ I said as calmly as possible, not wanting him to become any more angry.

‘What do you mean you don’t know?’ he asked, crouching down.

‘I don’t know.’

‘You know!’

‘It’s not like she was driving and sculling a bottle of wine.’

‘Did you ask her if she was sober? Were the police called? And how damaged is my jeep?’

‘The police weren’t called. It was only a bump. The front guard was a bit messed up. It was scraping on the front tyre and Mum had to take the car to a garage to get it fixed.’

‘How did you get to the game?’

‘We walked from where Mum dropped us. It wasn’t far.’

‘What? So you were at the game by yourselves?’ Dad was yelling now, throwing his hands above his head. Caitlin came up behind him and placed a hand on his back.

‘Mark, go easy on Phoebe. It’s not her fault.’

Dad calmed down a little and said, ‘I know it’s not her fault, but I need to be able to trust her. I’ve told her before; when her mum’s drinking, she needs to tell me.’

‘I didn’t know she was drinking,’ I said and that was the truth. It wasn’t like Mum had a drink in her hand. ‘She didn’t seem drunk or anything.’

‘Yeah, I’ve heard that a million times before,’ Dad said, reaching for his phone and stepping out of my room.

‘I’m really sorry, you didn’t deserve that.’ Caitlin moved towards me with her big, brown puppy-dog eyes. ‘Can I do anything?’

The only thing I could think of was saying leave me the hell alone. Instead, I shook my head and when she left my room I rolled to my side, pulled my legs to my chest and switched off my light. I wasn’t going to let them see me cry.

Dad must have reached Mum’s voicemail because all I heard him say was, ‘When you’re out of the cell, the bar, the gutter or wherever you are, call me. We need to talk. And Phoebe is spending the weekend here, Bronwyn. School is starting, remember? I’m going to be a responsible parent and help her prepare.’

I knew Dad and Caitlin were trying not to talk about Mum until I was asleep, but they couldn’t help themselves. About half an hour later, I heard Caitlin say, ‘Mark, you can’t keep letting this happen.’

Let what happen? I thought. Mum scratched the car, so what?