I get to New Beginnings early and wait for Flynn and Kyle, but there’s no sign of them. Not the next day. Or the next. Mom is awake when I’m home, but I’m the one hiding in my room. I’m a wreck. I’ve lost Nance too, but that doesn’t even compare to not being able to reach Flynn. He doesn’t have a cell phone, and I don’t know if he even has a landline. I keep expecting him to show up at New Beginnings with a logical explanation for why he hasn’t been there, but I’m afraid. That my dad scared him away. That Flynn let him. I want to yell at him for not coming back. I’m angry. I have things to say. I’m scared. But most of all, I miss him. “What’d you do to make everyone around here so mad?” Wilf asks on day three when we’re carrying dirty dishes into the kitchen. Stella came in for a moment earlier and watched me with her lips pressed together, her eyes disapproving. After a moment she left without saying anything.
