Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

DANIEL

Olive hurries to catch up to me as I walk out of the school. "I didn't see you at lunch. Where were you?"

"Detention."

Olive's mouth falls open. "Detention? How? It's the first day of school."

I walk toward the city bus stop. Laura's house is so close to the school there isn't a school bus route. The school gives us city bus passes instead.

When I slow down, Olive gasps, standing right beside me. "Your face."

I almost forgot about it, but I doubt it's that bad. She's probably overreacting. It doesn't even hurt anymore.

"My parents are going to flip out when they see you."

She's right. As soon as I walk into the house, Laura forces me to sit in the living room to "talk." I don't want to, but I don't have a choice. Rob is using my room for work, and I have nowhere else to go .

"Who did this to you?" she asks, sitting next to me.

I shrug.

"Are you getting bullied?"

"No."

She puts her hand on my shoulder. "You didn't get in a fight, did you?"

I shrug again, pulling away from her touch.

"I know you're upset, but this kind of behavior isn't acceptable in our household."

My heart speeds up. "So?"

Laura crosses her arms. "That's all you have to say for yourself?"

It's not like they want me here, so why should I act the way they want me to? Why should I act the way anyone wants me to?

"If you don't want me, kick me out," I say.

"That's not going to happen." She says it like a fact, and it takes me back. I figured she'd be happy to have an excuse to be rid of me.

I tap my foot, staring off.

"Why don't you tell me what's bothering you? I want to help," she says.

I don't know what she wants me to tell her. I don't really know why I reacted the way I did. I've never gotten into a fight before, but my body is on edge. I feel like I can't breathe and the world is suffocating me. It's like I'm a kettle on the stove waiting to go off. I need a way to get rid of the anger building inside of me, and I don't know how.

I shake my head. "I need a shower."

Part of me expects Laura to force me to sit here longer, but she nods. "Okay. We'll talk about this later. Go clean up. I know you don't want to, but we need to visit your grandma. "

She's right, I don't want to visit her, but I also don't want to sit here any longer. I rush to the bathroom and lock myself in there.

I get out of the car and walk into the building. My chest is heavy, like a brick is resting on top of it, refusing to let me take a deep breath; and my stomach is queasy, wrestling with my lunch.

The inside of this building screams old. The carpet is dark green, and there's purple flowered wallpaper everywhere. There's at least one mirror on every wall to try and make the place seem bigger than it is, but they do a poor job of hiding the truth. The place feels like a doll house—suffocating.

Laura and I sign in at the main desk and head down the hallway toward my grandma's room. It isn't very far, maybe two or three rooms down, on the left. I figured coming here would get easier after a while, but it hasn't.

Whenever I come, my skin crawls and my hands clam up.

I knock on her door before walking in. Grandma sits in a rocking chair by the window.

"Hello, Aunt Janet." Laura walks over to give her a hug.

"Oh, hi," Grandma says. "I haven't seen you in forever."

She saw Laura last week.

Laura smiles anyway. "We thought we'd come say hi."

"And who's this?" Grandma asks, looking at me.

My heart sinks. Every time she forgets me, I'm reminded of how insignificant I was to her. If she can remember Laura, who she rarely saw, she should remember me. I lived with her my whole life .

I stay by the door, ready to flee as soon as Laura's required visit is finished.

"That's Daniel. He's Ashley's son," Laura says.

Hearing my mother's name is like nails on a chalkboard. I grew up hating her for abandoning me. I hate her even more for dying. She overdosed seven months after she left me with Grandma.

Grandma's face pinches together as she studies me. "Ashley's boy?"

Laura runs over to me and grabs my hand. She pulls me toward Grandma despite me dragging my heels. "Today was his first day of school."

Grandma smiles at me. "What's your name?"

I don't want to remind her again. I want her to know it without being told.

"His name is Daniel," Laura says.

"That's a nice name," Grandma says. "Come sit down. Tell me about your first day of school."

Why? So she can be disappointed? I slept through my classes, I got in a fight, and I have detention for the next week. At this rate it's better if she continues forgetting me.

Laura waits a minute for me to talk, but when I don't, she fills the silence. "He's going to school with my daughter now."

"How nice." Grandma frowns. "Ashley hasn't visited me in a while. How is she?"

Laura shifts her weight. "Ashley is really busy."

Grandma scratches her head as if she's trying to connect the dots. "Well, you tell her to come visit me soon."

"We will," Laura says, looking over at me. "Right?"

I raise my eyebrow in response. "Uh, sure." I can't stand pretending my mom is alive, but I'm not about to go through the roller coaster of reminding Grandma her daughter has been dead for years. It's not worth it. She'll forget again.

All I want to do is get out of here as soon as possible. I don't see the point of coming since eighty percent of the time Grandma doesn't recognize me, but Laura insists.

I find a chair in the corner of the room and sit while they chat. I nod or shake my head in response to every question I'm asked until I've been here long enough to leave.