Chapter 81

Bakersville high school

***

“Gabriel hasn’t come by here in a while, is he okay?” Terry asked.

Emily froze. She debated quickly on whether lying to her mother was a good idea, but she also didn’t want her to intervene in the situation, because she knew her Mom would go overboard and get everyone else involved and the last thing Emily wanted was for everyone to know what had happened between her and Gabriel.

That was the first time they had argued in a long time and he had simply left her room and gone to his, packed up a few of his things, and left. She had seen him around in school, and he looked fine. But she knew that this was a facade. She knew that looking like he was fine was something he did every day even when he had stayed up all night trying to stop his parents from fighting.

She felt guilty: she wondered how she could apologize to him but she also knew that he would take that chance to be especially mean and she didn’t feel like going through embarrassment and humiliation o