How (Not) to Fall in Love(4)

I stared at the glass. The Tri!Umphant! Harvest logo swirled around it from top to bottom in gold lettering.

T-houghtful

R-esponsible

I-nitiative!

U-nleashes

M-agnificent

P-ositive

Harvest!

I sighed. Those words were more important than any prayers or political beliefs in our house. As an AP English student, I despised the phrase with its incorrect punctuation, crazy capitalization, and fuzzy meaning. As my father’s daughter, I pretended to believe every word. There had to be something to it, right? Why else would so many people pay to listen to my dad talk about it?

I brought the glass to Mom and sat across from her. She stared into it before speaking. “I don’t really know what’s going on,” she said. “I’m hoping your dad will be home soon, and everything will be okay.”

“But what J.J. said about us going broke. Did he mean it? How is that even possible?”

Mom stood up and walked to the liquor cabinet, which surprised me. She wasn’t much of a drinker; she always said the extra calories weren’t worth the buzz. I watched anxiously as she poured amber-colored liquid over the ice cubes. She took a swig and turned to face me.

“Maybe you should go to the football game with J.J. tonight. You always have fun.”

Now I wondered if Mom was the one taking the blue pill. How could she expect me to go to a game and act like nothing was going on? And hang out with J.J., who was acting so weird? No way. I leaned over to rub Toby’s belly. His tail thumped softly against the rug Mom had imported from Turkey.

“No thanks. I’ll skip it.” I pulled out my cell and texted Dad. “Where r u? Call asap. 911.” He always called when I used our I-need-to-talk-right-now code, which wasn’t often.

“So do you think I’ll be able to get my car back?” J.J. had to be wrong about that.

“I don’t know, Darcy.” Mom sat across from me and took another swig of her drink. My stomach fluttered. Not only was she drinking in the middle of the day, she wasn’t exactly sipping, either. “We need to talk to your dad.”

I waved my phone at her. “I just texted him. 911. He’ll call any minute.”

But he didn’t call.

Mom and I sort of watched the first half of the football game on TV while we ate a gross frozen pizza. We spent more time checking our phones and texting Dad than we did watching the game. At halftime, I went upstairs to my room, wanting to get away from Mom, who’d switched from the amber liquor to wine.

I turned on my laptop, hoping to escape my worries for a while. I logged onto Instagram and scanned everyone’s latest pics, but when I saw what Ryan had posted, my heart stopped.

He’d hashtagged the photo “Repo Girl,” and had the nerve to tag me in it. The photo was of me, my mouth partly open in shock. Sal stood next to me, her arms flung up in exasperation. My car on the back of the tow truck looked fuzzy and out of focus.

My breath came in short bursts. How could he do this? We weren’t close friends, or anything more, much as I’d dreamed about that. But we were hardly enemies. We’d known each other for years. I wasn’t in his uber popular orbit, but he spoke to me in class, at the eco-club meetings, at parties. He knew me.

I scanned the comments, most of which mocked me and the repo, but not all of them.

“Dude. Why r u being a prick? Delete this or I’ll pound you.” That was from Mark, Sal’s latest boy toy. Mark was cool; even cooler than I’d realized, apparently. A few people had echoed his comment so maybe not everyone thought I was a loser. But judging from most of the photo likes and snarky comments, Ryan had managed to turn me into the laughingstock of the whole school.

I closed my laptop and flopped back on my bed. Toby jumped up and curled next to me. I rubbed his head while staring at the ceiling. I couldn’t believe Dad had just disappeared. Was he leaving Mom for good? My heart sped up to hyperdrive. I couldn’t imagine them divorcing. They drove me nuts but I loved them, and they seemed to love each other. I never heard screaming arguments. They spent long weekends together all the time, flying to resort towns and leaving me home with Toby.

I had no complaints about that. I loved my time alone. I wasn’t the kid who threw wild parties when her parents were gone. I was the weirdo watching old movies by myself or making jewelry while I listened to music. I invited Sal over, no one else, though I sometimes wished I had a boyfriend to hang out with when my parents were gone.

Desperate to escape the fear and anxiety bearing down on me, I put on an old romantic comedy, hoping to cheer myself up. The movie lulled me to sleep and I woke hours later to the theme music playing over and over. I turned off my TV and stumbled downstairs to say good night to Mom.

But when I walked into the family room, lured by the sounds of late night television, I found Mom passed out on the couch, an empty wine bottle tipped over on the floor.





September 17

Dear Darcy, I’m sorry honey. So sorry. I need to get away from Colorado for a while to clear my head and focus on the next step. I miss you and your mom and love you both. Remember we will be Tri!Umphant! no matter what happens.

XO,

Dad





Chapter Three


September 23


The Top Ten Reasons Darcy Covington Should Leave Woodbridge Academy