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“Shit, that sucks,” Savannah said. “Are they getting divorced?” Savannah’s own parents were divorced, which Avery had learned on move-in day when four parents had shown up to help Savannah unpack. “If they are, I know it sucks, but really, it’s for the best. My parents are way happier now than they were before the big D.”

“My mom won’t admit it’s even happening, so no.”

“And you’re sure she knows?”

Two years ago, Avery had found her mother sobbing in the kitchen when she came home from school at lunchtime to grab something she’d forgotten. Kelly hadn’t noticed her, too wrapped up in her grief, but Avery had seen the photo on her mom’s iPad that was making her cry—her dad and a woman wearing nurse’s scrubs, kissing in a parking lot in the middle of the goddamn day. Avery never found out how her mom got the photo, and she never once heard her parents argue about it either. When Avery tried to ask her about it a few days later, her mother lied to her face, claiming she didn’t know what Avery was talking about. Her mom had just done what she’d always done, and put on the facade of a perfect wife and perfect family.

Avery would have been able to write it off as a onetime thing, except six months later, she had seen her dad driving another woman’s car toward the hospital on a day he was supposed to have been stuck in surgery. That woman was in the passenger seat, laughing at something Jeremy had said while they waited at a red light, oblivious to the fact that his own daughter was in the car next to them. And Avery had been sure it was not the same woman, as the woman her mom had been crying about was white and a nurse, while this woman was in civilian clothes and Asian.

“She knows,” Avery finally confirmed. “And I think she’s known. For a while.”

After the Car Incident, Avery had started piecing things together, and the conclusion was both depressing and incredibly simple: Her father had been cheating on her mother for Avery’s entire life, and possibly longer. And while being angry with her dad was the logical answer, Avery had never been able to be mad at him head-on. Jeremy had always been easier for her to talk to, to lean on, than her mother. And anyway, her mom was the one who was letting him get away with it and lying to Avery for him. It made her feel like she was surrounded by liars on every side.

Savannah sat silently for a moment. “That sucks. I’m sorry. How long has it been going on?”

“I don’t know for sure, but—a long time. Maybe forever. And more than one woman.”

“Does anyone else know?”

“Probably. It doesn’t really seem like he’s hiding it.” She suspected Theo’s mom probably knew, but only because one time last summer Tiffany had asked some awkward, out-of-context questions about what her dad had been doing the day before. Avery hadn’t known exactly where he had been, but she’d had a decent enough guess even if she played dumb at the time.

“Wow, fuck him,” Savannah muttered.

“I just—I have a thing about lying, you know?”

“Because of him?”

Avery took a deep, shuddering breath. “Because of her. She’s known, and she just keeps pretending, and letting him pretend, and me pretend, and if she’d just say something, we could get it out in the open.”

There was something freeing about talking about this with Savannah. The stakes in Itasca were too high; she didn’t know how her parents had managed to keep it under wraps there, especially given that her dad wasn’t really being particularly discreet. But Savannah didn’t know anyone up there and had met her parents only once in passing. It was safe to tell her in a way it wasn’t safe to tell just about anyone else.

“I get that,” Savannah said, kicking her leg back and forth over the edge. “My mom was the one who asked for the divorce, but Dad was the one who convinced her to keep trying for another year, and even as a kid, I could tell it was pointless. Worst fucking year of my life, honestly, and I blamed Dad for it. Even the divorce part was easier. The custody fight fucking sucked, but at least I wasn’t waiting for it to happen anymore.”

Tears sprang to Avery’s eyes. That was it—the dread, the constant feeling like the axe dangling above her head was going to fall at any second, coupled with the pressure of keeping a secret no one even knew she had. Her dad was lying to her mom, her mom was lying to them both, and Avery was lying to everyone she knew. It made her sick.

A thought occurred to her, wiggling like an egg about to hatch. But it was tinged with guilt, so she forced the egg to still before she had to deal with the aftermath. Savannah cast a shrewd look at her, softening when she saw Avery’s tears. “Is that it? Just your parents?”

It wasn’t, and Avery had a feeling Savannah knew that. But she nodded, and her roommate accepted it anyway.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Theo

Theo unlocked the door to his dorm room and was hit by a wave of—smell. It wasn’t terrible, exactly, but it wasn’t pleasant either. It was a mix of cologne and energy drinks, and at first, he thought the room was empty. The shades were drawn, giving the room the appearance of a very cluttered gothic cave, replete with posters for a bunch of bands that favored skull imagery. Not all of those were Sawyer’s, but most were, and Theo forced himself to stifle a sigh at the thought of living with that guy for another few weeks.

As if on cue, the recliner facing Sawyer’s prized video game setup slowly revolved. “Well, well, well, look who’s back,” Sawyer said, his pale skin almost glowing.

Theo dumped his stuff on his side of the room. “Was I not supposed to come back?”

“Wasn’t sure. Thought maybe you’d get so homesick for your little woman that you’d stay up in Buttfuck Nowhere.”

Sawyer was from a first-ring suburb, which he apparently thought gave him license to be a huge dick about Itasca. Not that Theo hadn’t probably referred to it as Buttfuck Nowhere at least once himself, but it still rankled. “Fuck you, man,” Theo said without any real heat. His fight with Avery had taken it all out of him.

Sawyer watched him curiously, like Theo was a bug under his magnifying glass. “What’s your deal?” he said after several minutes of increasingly uncomfortable observation.

“My deal is, it’s dark as hell in here. Can we open the shades?”

“I’ll burst into flames, you know that,” Sawyer replied dryly. “But that isn’t it, I can tell.”