“Those boys didn’t bother you, did they?” Mom asked over the phone, worry laced in her voice.
She had asked me the same question about fifteen times since she had seen me walk out of the restroom after Landon, João, and Kai did. I’d had to leave the freaking house because she was aggravating me so much.
If I blew up at her, she’d tighten her hold on me even more.
I already felt like I was suffocating.
So, instead, I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel of my car, parked in the center of the Redwood slums, and stared at the run-down house, which belonged to Landon. It had taken hours to figure out where that boy lived, but I needed to talk to him.
“No, they didn’t.” Lie.
“Are you sure? I have never seen them on our side of town before.”
Light flooded out through one of the second-
