Brynna closed her eyes, the embarrassment total. Teddy stood up. “Thanks, Mr. Fallbrook, it is important. I need to know if Brynna will go to the homecoming dance with me.”
A ripple of laughter and “awws” went through the room, and Brynna glanced around, nervous. She caught Darcy’s eye, and Darcy immediately looked away, her mouth held in a hard, thin line.
“Well?” Fallbrook asked.
“Uh, yeah. Yeah, Teddy, I’ll go with you.” Giddiness washed over Brynna, and she could feel little pops of warmth thrumming underneath her skin.
“All right, fantastic. Now everybody get to work.”
???
The rest of the school day passed uneventfully, and Brynna was glad. By sixth period biology, her stomach had de-knotted itself and her heartbeat was back to its normal, non-rib-slamming pace. When the final bell rang, she made a beeline for her locker and grinned when she saw that Teddy was already there.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
He held up a sad-looking daisy. “Flower delivery guy.” He offered Brynna the flower, which flopped when she took it.
She smiled anyway. “Uh, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not very good at your job. Aren’t you supposed to keep these in water or something?”
Teddy clutched at his chest. “You’re breaking my heart, lady!” He straightened. “Would you like a ride home?”
“In your refrigerated flower truck?” Brynna mimed thinking hard. “It would be a treat. But no thanks. My mom is picking me up.”
“Ah, the mother. Much like the fake phone number.”
“No, really, my mom is picking me up. You can even come out and meet her.”
Teddy waited with Brynna at the front of the school until her mother pulled into the roundabout. When the car came to a stop, Brynna linked arms with Teddy and pulled him toward the car.
“Hey, Mom, this is my friend, Teddy.”
Teddy waved. “Hey, Mrs. Chase.”
Brynna’s mother offered a thin smile and a curt nod. “Nice to meet you, Teddy. Bryn, we’re kind of in a hurry.”
Brynna turned to Teddy and waved. “See you tomorrow.” She tucked the daisy behind her ear. “And don’t put me on your list of references for your new job.”
Teddy laughed then jogged across the grass while Brynna plopped into the passenger seat. “He gave me a flower.” She tossed her backpack over the seat and belted herself in while her mother stared at her, eyes wide.
“Uh, something the matter, Mom?”
Her mother took a short, quick breath and then pushed the window button, the driver and passenger windows sliding down two inches each. Brynna pulled her hoodie tighter across her chest and went to roll her window back up.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
“You’ve been smoking.”
Brynna gaped as her mother calmly pushed the car into drive and pulled away from the curb. “No, I haven’t.”
Her mother kept a careful eye on the road in front of them, refusing to look at Brynna.
“Mom.” Brynna tugged on her mother’s sweater. “Hello?”
The light in front of them turned red. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying!”
Her mother turned in her seat. “Brynna, I can smell it all over you. Does that boy smoke too? Is that why?”
“Teddy? No, Mom.”
“Brynna Marie, I’m really getting tired of—”
“So am I, Mom.” A small flicker of anger in her belly turned into an overwhelming flame. “I was sitting on the bleachers and there were kids smoking underneath me. I wasn’t smoking. They were.”
Her mother slowly stepped on the gas as the light changed but said nothing.
“Mom, I swear.”
“I want to believe you, Bryn.”
“Then you should.” She pressed her fingers into the dashboard. “It’s not like I’m Dad.”
Brynna’s mother’s head snapped toward Brynna, her eyes shooting venom. “Your father is of legal drinking age, young lady. You will leave him out of this.”
“So forty-five, that’s the legal age to be a functioning alcoholic?” She knew it was low, but the hypocrisy of her parents—her father, with the faint smell of bourbon on his minty-fresh breath, and her mother, pretending it wasn’t there—infuriated Brynna.
Her mother took a deep breath, presumably to calm herself, and Brynna felt a stab of jealousy. When her father was drunk, out entertaining, Brynna wasn’t the only one left behind—her mother was too.
“I’m not going to smoke. I’m not going to drink. You stuck me in that stupid rehab for six weeks. Do you think I would just go back to—” Brynna crossed her arms in front of her chest, the frustration hot in her cheeks.
“You father and I did not ‘stick’ you in rehab, young lady. You did that yourself. And smoking, drinking, any of that violates your probation and our deal.”
“You think I don’t know that? God!” Brynna slammed herself back in her seat, edging as far away from her mother as she could get.
“When we go home, you’re heading straight for the shower. Leave your backpack downstairs on the table.”
“You’re searching me again? Mom—”
“We had a deal.”