I pull into our driveway after a quick stop at the hardware store for white paint, and sure enough, there it is, still streaked across our garage door in red: BITCH. I swear it’s gotten bigger since this morning.

I love that it’s still there. Just love it. If Gwen hadn’t already seen it this morning, she couldn’t miss it now.

I sit in the car for a beat too long after Gwenie’s hopped out. Conor notices.

“You okay, man?” He pauses with his hand on the door, looking at me with eyebrows raised.

I grunt affirmatively, shoot him a half smile, and reluctantly get out of the car. I thought I’d learned to temper my expectations of my parents long ago. The fact that my dad hasn’t done shit about this all day shouldn’t be a surprise, but for some idiotic reason it is, and that pisses me off more than anything. How dumb can I be?

“Whatever.” I lean against the driver’s-side door of the Jeep and rub my eyes. “Expected this, right? It’s why we got the paint.”

Conor nods and I think I see a flash of pity run across his face, but it’s gone before I can figure out whether it was actually there or if it was just a figment of my imagination. He walks around to the back of the car and unloads the paint.

“Let’s get to it.”

It takes us about an hour and a half to paint the garage door. Gwen comes out with a couple bottles of water for us, which is pretty sweet of her. It’s been hot as balls this month. By the time we’re finished, my arm is aching and I’m sweating my ass off, but I still haven’t heard a peep from my dad. I know he must be inside; his car is in the driveway. I can’t work up the energy to ask Gwen if she’s seen him.

It wasn’t always this way with him. When I was little, he was a whole different person. I don’t know what changed, whether he became a shit dad when he lost his job and started trying to make his lame garage band a serious thing, or if it was a few years after that, when he started to realize his dream was never going to happen. Usually I don’t even think it matters which came first—the fact is, he changed. It’s too late, and I’m over it.