No one could see that I was suffocating. They were too small. Too far away. I had no way to breathe them back to their regular size.

Soon enough, the entire room went black.

18

“She’s been asleep since you left! What was I supposed to do?”

“Wake her up!”

“I tried! You know how she gets sometimes.”

“So, she was sleeping and you couldn’t do what I asked all by yourself?”

“I forgot.”

“You forgot?”

“She fell asleep so fast I thought maybe she was sick.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Dad. It’s the truth.”

“You really don’t seem to care about what’s going to happen to you.”

“Of course I do.”

“Are you sure? Because I can’t think of a single thing I’ve asked you to do this summer that you’ve actually done, and I can think of quite a few things I’ve asked you not to do that you’ve had no trouble accomplishing.”

I started to shift around, figuring this was as good a time as any to announce I was awake, but in her continued whisper-fight tone, Aidy said, “Dad, I’ve been trying to look out for her this entire summer,” and I turned myself toward our couch’s pillow cushions, burying my head in the crease between two, trying to keep my breath as steady as it was in sleep. “That’s pretty much a full-time job. She’s—she’s acting like she did the first—” Her volume dropped so low my dad couldn’t even hear the rest of her sentence.

“What?” he said, matching her urgency.

Murmur, murmur, murmur.

The kitchen had never seemed farther away. I must’ve slept for at least an hour. Probably more. My parents were already back from dinner. My last dose of ibuprofen had worn off. The pain in my nose radiated out from the center of my face and into my cheeks and eyes. And the mystery drink from Harrison. Oh, the mystery drink. It felt like I’d never be right again.

Aidy was too quiet, as if she knew my ears were trained on the conversation.

My dad, unaware or unconcerned, remained loud enough for me to understand. “Earliest we can get her there is the end of the week. We can’t afford to take off any workdays. Your mom and I gave up all our PTO when we came down to your school. And this camp’s not cheap. We’re not made of money, you know.”