ra's

y I used to in Vancouver wh

, my hair pulled back. Noth

my bag. I had just three lef

drifted up the staircase b

stove with her back t

ing," she

from the bowl

made enou

d myself a juice, clearly n

for me to t

the stove without another word. The spatula scraped

lf I didn't

hen, hair damp, shirt half-buttoned. He looked at my mother's ba

a piece of toast from the s

said, her voice almost

Canadian to class." He

able, where Logan's place had already been clea

y," I

y mother watching me.

as said, as we pulled out of the driveway. "Even

not hu

an apple i

having b

'm just saying that living in a house where two p

"That's your ve

ix it soon." He drummed the ste

pped the wheel twice. "If anyone gives you a har

be f

ways sa

it's alwa

me. The moment I crossed the quad,

ations

ughter. She came in with L

nd counted my steps

h bangs hanging over her eyes, her shoulders hunched as if she were trying

e. I had worn it f

e whole lecture, and someh

d, a shadow fel

weet and sharp at once. "If i

ith their arms folded, smiling like the Grinch. She was tall, d

actually dropped you off." She tilted her

do you

little

agged me out of the class to the back of the s

ed me again

your stepbrother, what gives you the right? You've been here a week, and you're already

aid. "Just le

the strap. All I wanted was to run. But there were three

ls looked down

anked the bag open and pul

that

up between two fingers, r

d. "Are you a junkie? Does the Al

ked. "Please. You don't und

and she lifted it

hose pills, the fever and the silver in my eyes and the ache beneath

ed my visio

laughte

low growl rolled across the courtyard, so deep I

nd of the passage, h

ca opened her mouth, and he knocked her hand a

all and slid down, a thin li

rolled to my feet. I snatche

up, Logan was

e. Anger. Something that looked like w

w what he

o needed pills to be normal, standing in front o

and I had never

er, and I shoved past him, past th