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Mia takes the dress. Her shoulders droop, and she looks at me with big, sad eyes. “I just don’t want to be in trouble today.”
“If you do, go to the office and call me. I’ll fix it.”
I know I can’t always fix things. I won’t be able to step in every time she has a problem. But today? I can let her teacher know that she needs a little extra patience.
Ben appears in the doorway behind her. “I don’t want to go either.”
“Because they’re out to get me,” Mia says.
“Nobody at school is out to get you. I know how hard it is. Okay?” Ben frowns, but I give him an encouraging smile. “I know it sucks having to go to school in a new place. You didn’t want to move here. I get it.” I sling an arm around both of them, gathering my siblings in. “But this is where we are, and what we need to do now is…”
“Give it a chance,” they both say.
“That’s right. We need to give it a chance.”
Mia leans her head against me for a moment, then straightens up. “Fine. But I’m not doing anything wrong on purpose.”
“Try counting to ten before you get up. Just give it another ten seconds. See how it goes today.”
Mia slips out of the room to change, but Ben sticks his hands in his pockets. “I can’t count to ten and get my old friends back. There’s nobody good at the new school.”
I run a hand over his hair. “You might not have met them yet, you know. There are good people everywhere. You just have to find them.”
Some advice, coming from me. I’m the one who bent over my boss’s desk yesterday. Because he made me.
Because I wanted to.
I’m fairly certain that doesn’t count asgood.
“Are we ever going back?”
His green eyes look for sincerity in mine. I’ve never been able to bullshit Ben. “Honestly? I don’t think so. But I don’t know. Anything could happen.”
“Okay.” He sighs, but then he shakes his head like he’s getting out of the pool. “I’m going to get my backpack. Do you want anything?”
“I’m all good. But you’re sweet.” I grab my purse. My phone. “I just have to talk to Dad before we leave. Check on Mia?”
“Mia,” he says through their bedroom door as I go through the apartment. “How hard is it to put on a dress?”
Her laugh is muffled by the door.
Dad’s standing by his dresser, going through his wallet. I step in and shut the door most of the way. “I need to talk to you about something.”
“What is it, hon? Can’t be any bad news, right?” He smiles, optimistic as hell, but his bruise still looks terrible. Nobody’s going to give him a job while he looks like that. Itreallyneeds to hurry up and heal.
“My boss found out.”
His hands go still on the wallet. The non-bruised skin on his face pales. “Well, shit. You know I don’t have the money, Bristol. I had to use it to pay off that debt.”
“Of course.” I try not to let my frustration show. My confusion. Because it isn’t confusing. It’s simple, really, what Mr. Leblanc offered. What hedemanded.My body as repayment for the money I stole. My body in exchange for staying out of jail. It justfeelsconfusing. I shouldn’t have liked it. I shouldn’t have gotten any pleasure out of it. I should not have thought about it in bed last night. “But you said you’d get a job and help me pay it back.”
He promised.
“Yeah.” Dad slips his wallet into his back pocket and gives it a pat. Then both hands go into his pockets. “It didn’t pan out.”
“Dad.”
“Hasn’t panned outyet.”
