The vulnerability of the empty house pulsed behind me until I reached my room. I was never more thankful to see Kori. The only person I could truly count on anymore.

“So, what did Mommy Dearest say?” Kori asked as she whipped her straight hair into a funky knot.

“She’s not even here.” My head couldn’t wrap around that.

“What do you mean she’s not here?”

“I don’t know, I think she might be …” I could barely form the words that came to mind. “On a date?”

“A what?”

“I don’t know! She’s not here and she didn’t tell me she was leaving.”

“Okay, okay, calm down.”

Kori was used to her parents’ disappearing acts, so I didn’t want to make a big deal about it in front of her. But it definitely was a big deal, a very big deal. “I’m fine. Let’s just go to the party, okay?”

I could tell by the way Kori looked at me that she didn’t believe that I was fine, but she also wasn’t about to make me talk either. “Well, you’re not going dressed like that. Go get changed.”

I hurried, grabbing up my shortest skirt as I headed to the bathroom to do my hair and makeup. All I could think about was Mom. She’d never been a big dater or anything. Let’s just say Dr. Phil’s Relationship Rescue was more of a vicarious read for her. But maybe now she was making up for lost time. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. But I sure as hell didn’t like her keeping it from me. Abandoning me without so much as a sticky note.

All those nights I thought I was so clever sneaking out to the dam, making my movements stealthy and covering my tracks, I wasn’t fooling anyone. There wasn’t anyone to fool except myself.

I returned to my mom’s room and retrieved my cell phone from the drawer of her bedside table.

I walked back into my room and saw Kori at my computer. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“Just waiting for you, kitten,” she said coyly as she pushed the power button on my monitor.

“That’s the monitor,” I said. Before I could stop her, she’d jabbed the PC’s power button. “Kor, you’re supposed to actually shut it down.”

“Whatever.” She looked at the “Let’s talk” Post-it note collection that was growing like mold over my desk as if it were the first time she’d ever seen it. She flicked one of them with her finger. “Why do you keep all of these? If that isn’t a cry for help, I don’t know what is.”

She turned back and looked at me. I just shrugged.