Page 17 of Pierced Pages
Morgan shook her head. “I never wanted to see my mother again. And I was doing a good job of making that happen.”
“Tough choice. Sucks either way.”
“Yup.” Morgan sighed and took the remote from Jen. “But I’ve got a week to decide, and we’ve got half a show left to watch. I don’t want to think about it anymore today.”
She pressed play and settled in, as if that last part were possible.
Chapter 8
Danielle
As soon as the backpack landed on the table, Lila spun around and took aim at the kitchen. She reached into the pantry and came out with a bag of chips. When she headed for her bedroom, Danielle called out before she made it to the hallway.
“Nope. No crumbs in the bedroom,” she said. “I already have to fight you to clean up in there. I don’t want to deal with critters, too.”
“Fine,” Lila said with a huff.
Whoever said older teenagers held the market on attitudes never met a thirteen-year-old.
“What’s for dinner?” Lila asked.
“Spaghetti.”
Lila sat at the bar while Danielle began pulling things out to prep dinner. She still had plenty of time, but if she got the meat sauce started, she could let it simmer while she helped Lila with her homework in a little while.
Danielle pulled out the skillet and placed it on the stove while Lila crunched loudly on a chip. She was still in her school uniform, the green polo and khakis of the feeder school toDanielle’s high school. Lila’s straight blonde hair trailed down her back and looked like it could use a good brushing.
“How was school?”
Lila shrugged. “Okay. Except Rylee was sick, so I had to partner with Jamie for our character interviews.”
Danielle’s stomach clenched. One sick kid in middle school was rarely just one sick kid. Especially when that sick kid was your own kid’s best friend.
“Do you know what Rylee has?”
“I don’t know,” Lila said. “Like a cold or something.”
“Is it bad?”
Lila shrugged. “I don’t know. She said she doesn’t feel too bad, but her mom said she has a fever.”
Great. Rylee had come over last weekend, and since it was Thursday, they were probably safe on that. But they spent every day together at school, so Lila could have easily picked up whatever this was during the week.
“I’m sorry to hear she isn’t feeling well,” Danielle said, pulling a can of spaghetti sauce from the pantry.
“She said she gets to watch YouTube in bed all day. Lucky.”
Danielle decided against arguing that it isn’t lucky to be sick. There would be no convincing Lila otherwise if her friend was watching videos throughout an illness.
Lila put her half-eaten bag of chips on the bar and placed her phone in front of her. She scrolled for a minute, then stopped and pointed at the screen.
“This is the one I want for my birthday.”
“Lila, if that’s a snake, I’m not looking at it.” Danielle pulled the ground meat from the fridge. “And we already talked about this.”
Not only was the idea of a snake in the apartment appalling to Danielle, let alone the feeding it part, there was no way the apartment manager would allow it. Lila had pointed out therewasn’t a “no snakes” clause in the pet policy, only a weight limit, but Danielle was pretty sure it was implied.
“But it’s so cute,” Lila said. “Rylee said she might get one.”
