“She said, ‘Tell him I want to run away, cross state lines.’ It’s kind of an inside joke. But it’s not the kind of thing she would say about someone she wanted to forget. She wanted to work things out with you, Shay. Not forget you. She trusted you with her deepest, darkest secrets. For her to trust anyone after what had happened to her, well, it must’ve been real. She felt safe with you. So whatever you think her reasons were, I know what happened between you both was also about love. She’d want you to stop beating yourself up over it.”

Shay looked down at the ground, then squinted up at the sun. “So, I guess this is good-bye for a while, huh?”

I glanced over at Mom and knew her patience for this was thinning. “For a long while, I’m afraid.” I leaned over to give Shay a hug good-bye and heard the Jeep Cherokee roar to life.

“Did she just rev the engine?” Shay asked, moving a step behind me.

“I’m the dangerous one, remember?”

“Right,” he said with a grin. “So, yeah, I’ll probably be free before you are.”

“Probably. I don’t think your parole officer has anything on my mom.”

When we got home, Mom didn’t even mention the suspension. She seemed thankful just to have me home. She did, however, subject me to her attempt at home cooking and a Mandy Moore movie, which she mistakenly thought I liked now.

As we headed for bed, she turned the dishwasher on. The shushing noise of the water kicked in as I walked down the hall toward my room. I looked at the photos of Mom and me framed on the wall and it felt good to be home. To be together.

I hesitated in my doorway; there was something more I needed. I just didn’t know how to ask for it. I thought about Lexi and how easy it always seemed to be for her, the way she’d lope down the hall and glomp on my mom like a kid. It didn’t mean anything. But for me, it had just been so long.

Too long.

“Mom?”

She turned, and she looked tired. And I knew it was partly my fault. I walked over to her and put my arms around her. “I’m sorry. For everything.”

“Me too,” she whispered into my hair.

The principal, on Mr. K.’s appeal, had let me off easy. Easy being a three-day suspension. The best part about it was getting to sleep in.

Except for that horrific noise that jerked me out of my precious slumber.

Whap. Whap. Whap.

It sounded suspiciously like a cane being whacked repeatedly against my door.

“Get up, you little vandal!” Mrs. Patterson started screeching.

I pulled my pillow over my eyes and prayed it was just a nightmare.

Whap. Whap. Whap.