Chapter 53

I have a sneaky feeling I’m going to spend a lot of the drive home thinking things out.

While I’m down the street at Wawa filling up my gas tank, Mom packs my clean laundry into my suitcase and Joey brings it downstairs for me. It’s waiting by the kitchen door, probably in the exact same spot where I set it when I first arrived. My parents are in the kitchen, Dad with his nose buried in the paper as if it’s nothing to him that I’m about to leave and Mom at the sink, washing the dishes from lunch. As I come in, she glances up. “You got everything, Brian?”

“Let me go have a look.”

I take the steps two at a time and find Joey sitting on my bed. The covers have been folded neatly over the mattresses, both our beds made. As I come upstairs, Joey gives me a sad smile. “Thanks again, Brian.”

Thinking he’s means going out last night, I say, “Don’t mention it—”