Kara Thomas

When Tom, my stepfather, showed me the bathroom attached to my room with its own Jacuzzi tub, he said, Bet you feel like Cinderella, because he’s an idiot.

The worst thing about the new house is that there’s no way to sneak into my room.

“Monica,” my mother calls. “We’re eating dinner.”

In other words, Don’t you try to disappear upstairs.

They all smile at me: Jen, Juliana, Susan, Colleen, and Bethany.

know is that my sister wouldn’t have killed herself. And if she did, why didn’t she leave a note explaining why?

Jen thought of her friends slipping away from her and how it felt like she was hurtling toward the edge of something they couldn’t be pulled back from.

when the rest of the table had resumed conversation, laughing awkwardly, Jen saw it.

The way Ethan folded the fingers on one of his hands into the shape of a gun.

I exhale a little. I don’t know why, but Ginny’s message buoys me and carries me all the way to lunch.

I’ll find a way to make it right.

After I have a few words with Ethan McCready.

When Ethan finally speaks, his voice is monotone. “I wasn’t in the woods at all. I was leaving your house.”