Chapter 214: She Saw a Crumb

"IS this the only bottle of Pine-Sol you have?" My mother peeks her head out of the kitchen, sloshing back a half-full bottle of brown liquid.

I nod. "Won't that be enough?"

I've only washed the floors once since living here, and the kitchen's not that big. The bottle should be plenty.

"It will have to do," she says going back to her job of scrubbing the kitchen floor.

By hand.

I'm sure she saw a crumb down there from the previous renters, but now she can go to all her friends back home and tell them how she saved my life by cleaning my kitchen floor. Thank god she's not on Instagram. She'd post before and after shots.

I will go insane soon if she doesn't leave.

It's been almost two hours since Nate went to the hardware store and he hasn't come back. I'm starting to worry he picked up word my mother is here and knows to stay far, far away. He's a deserter in my biggest time of need.

"Where's your required bottle of bleach," she calls from the kitchen.

I swallow, knowi