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“You’re not the only kid in school without a car,” Mom said, her eyebrows raising. “Audrey doesn’t have a car. There, end of discussion.”
Lexi threw her head back and sighed dramatically.
“What about you, Mom?” I asked, hoping to cut off the start of another argument.
“Hmm, let me see.” She placed a manicured finger on her lips and smiled. “Close the deal on a new client, get a massage, pick out the new decorations for my office, and conquer the world.”
I grinned. “What a life you lead.”
“Indeed.” Her smile faded and she sighed. “Of course, there’s also the issue with your father. We’re meeting in front of a mediator today.”
I tried not to grimace. Our parents had been in and out of court too many times for me to count. It started with the divorce, got ugly with the sale of Mom’s beloved family home, and then slowed to a glacial pace with the issue of child support. She did her best to shield us from it, but I could still sense the stress coming off of her in waves. She’d lost at least twenty pounds in the past six months that she couldn’t afford to lose on her already thin frame.
“I just hope he doesn’t bring that woman,” she added quietly. The light in her eyes seemed to dim at the prospect, her beautiful face crumbling.
She was talking about Marie. The woman who had put the final nail in the coffin of my parents’ marriage. They’d been married now for almost three weeks, but my mother still had that same look in her eyes every time she came up in a conversation. It killed me to see her like that.
“Well, today I’m going to pitch a new song to my choir director I wrote for the centennial event,” I said with more pep than I actually felt. “Then, I’m going to see if I made the cheerleading team. Oh, and conquer the world before bedtime, of course.”
“Yeah, like you’re going to make the cheerleading team,” Lexi replied in a huff. “I think Peter’s Ford Mustang might sprout wings before that happens.”
I ignored Lexi. All that mattered was the way that Mom’s face lit up. She grasped her coffee mug between her hands and squealed like a teenaged girl. “I’d always hoped one of my girls would be a Rock Valley cheerleader someday! You won’t regret it, Audrey. It was the best time of my life cheering on the Bandits.”
I would do anything to make my Mom smile like that all the tim
e. Even sacrifice my dignity at the feet of Savannah’s alter and beg to be let on the cheerleading squad. Mom’s favorite memories were from high school, when she was the cheerleading captain. Lately, she’d gotten in the habit of reminiscing about those times. I couldn’t blame her. With the divorce and Lexi’s moodiness, there wasn’t exactly a lot around here to be happy about. As the oldest kid, it was my job to keep her from fading into the bad.
Growing up, Mom and I’d never had much in common. Dad and I had music. We had our guitars. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to break through to her. But with all of Mom’s talk about the good old days, it hadn’t taken me long to realize that that was one sure way to erase my mother’s pain. If I made the squad, she’d have a reason to be proud. No more thoughts about Marie and Dad. If she had a daughter on the cheerleading squad, she wouldn’t be so sad anymore.
The sound of a car horn outside made me pop up from my chair. “Got to run, Trina’s here,” I shouted, heading toward the door. “Love you!”
“Love you, too. Make good choices!”
“Why doesn’t Audrey have to ride the bus? It’s so not fair,” Lexi complained, her argument fading as I shut the apartment door behind me.
Trina was waiting for me in her ocean blue Chevy Cavalier. It was rusty around the wheel wells and the trunk sometimes popped open when we were driving down the highway, but it was freedom. The only one of us to own a car, Trina was our official chauffeur. She didn’t seem to mind.
I often liked to joke that Trina would give away her entire college savings account to the poor if her parents would let her. She was the kind of person who always took pity on someone less fortunate. The first to drop a check in the collection basket. She was our own brown haired, green-eyed gorgeous-enough-to-be-a-super-model friend with a heart of gold and some serious talent with a paint brush in her hand.
“Good morning, gorgeous.” She eyed me over her sunglasses. “You look especially hot today. What’s the occasion?”
I glanced down at my pink skinny jeans, black pleather top, and gladiator sandals. One of the perks of my mother’s business was free clothes. I liked to raid her closet.
“First impressions are important,” I said, sliding into the front seat.
She gave me a sad smile and threw the car into drive. “Last impressions, you mean. It’s our final year. I can’t believe it.”
She’d been crying over our last year of school since we were practically freshmen. I couldn’t wait. There was a whole new world out there, one that didn’t include my awful cousin, dumb teenaged boys, or homework every night. One that I planned on exploring thoroughly, once I finally followed my dream to pursue music.
“By the way, you didn’t happen to check Instagram this morning, did you?” She kept her eyes suspiciously glued to the road in front of us.
Shaking my head, I leaned back into the seat. “No. Why?”
“Nothing.” She exhaled loudly. Too loudly. Something was up.
“Trina? What aren’t you telling me?”
“As your best friend and guardian of your mental health, I feel obligated to tell you that a temporary break from all social media might be in your best interests at the moment—”
