CM:
I don’t know. I think it started in middle school, after I got in a little bit of trouble. Like my mom found a vape pen in my backpack, and I got a detention at school once for lettingsomeone cheat off me. None of it was that big. But my mom—you would have thought I’d murdered someone.
EB:
That must have been very hurtful, if the two of you had been so close.
CM:
It was … But I still kept trying to give her a chance. I thought maybe she was stressed about work and that she would go back to being her old self. And then Charlie happened. I know I was kind of young, but we’d been dating for a year and a half and we really loved each other.
EB:
You don’t have to justify it to me, Cleo.
