instead of making you need at least three for each class?
“Where’s Claire?”
Maya ignored the dull pain that shot up her spine whenever someone mentioned Claire. “We broke up.”
“What?” Lauren sounded scandalized. “Why? I thought you two were totally in love with each other.”
“Were. Past tense. Love is fleeting, things change, et cetera.”
“Why?”
“Because we had a fight and we both said mean things to each other.” Maya left out the part where she was mostly the one who said mean things, and Claire was mostly the one who said the truth.
“Well, that’s stupid,” Lauren said. “You two were really cute together.”
“Yeah, Grace and Joaquin already told me that I’m being an idiot. You don’t need to tell me, too, okay?”
There was a pause from the floor before Lauren said, “Grace and Joaquin? You told them?”
“Of course I told them. When they were here the other day, after you left to go to your friend’s house.”
“I thought you were only talking about Mom, though.”
“We talked about a lot of things, okay? For example, the fact that Grace thinks that we should find our biological mom.”
Maya had been trying to steer the conversation away from Claire, from how bad it felt to even say her name, the dullest grays and blacks that her mind could ever envision, plumes of choking smoke left over after a fireworks show. But judging from Lauren’s silence on the floor, she had sent the conversation down the wrong road entirely.
“What, so you’re just going to abandon your family now?”
“What?” Maya looked up from her physics homework. “What are you talking about?”
“Mom goes to rehab and you decide to swap her out for a new model? Is that what you’re doing with Grace, too? We’re too much trouble, so you decide to find something better?”
“Lauren, what the hell are you—”
“Never mind.” Lauren stood up, gathering her computer and books in such a hurry that one of her notebooks fell to the floor. Maya started to reach for it, but Lauren stepped in front of her, blocking Maya with her back. “Leave it alone,” she said.
“You’re in my room,” Maya pointed out. “I’d be happy to leave you alone, but you’re the one who needs to leave, not me.”
Lauren had always been like this, explosive as a toddler, screaming tantrums when she didn’t get her way. “It’s that redheaded gene,” her parents had explained, dragging her out of restaurants, movie theaters, bookstores, leaving Maya, the one thing that was not like the others, with a smile on her face and as the unexpected recipient of double the popcorn, ice cream, and books.
But when Lauren stormed out, Maya realized that she hadn’t left anything behind, and what used to feel like a victory now felt like a sad, hollow loss.
It was Thursday before Claire finally cut Maya off on her way to history class.
“Um, excuse me,” Maya said. “You’re making me late.”
That’s not what she had been planning to say to Claire, of course. Maya had thought of a thousand different things to say to her: apologies and confessions, tears and mea culpas, detailed explanations of how stupid Maya could be, how stubborn she was.
But then she saw Claire and the hurt bubbled over, taking over all the smart things she wanted to see in a jealous, green-fueled fury.
“How come you didn’t tell me your mom was in rehab?”
Maya went still. Nobody was supposed to know about that. Did everyone know? Was everyone at school watching her, judging her? “How—what? How did you—”
Claire held up her phone. She was taller than Maya, but for the first time, her height felt intimidating instead of safe. “Because Lauren texted me, that’s why. Your little sister was the one who had to tell me.”
Maya felt herself regroup, her insides steadying themselves against the nervous sloshing feeling in her stomach. “It’s none of your business.”
“Bullshit.”
Maya tried to step around her, but Claire stepped in time with her, blocking her path. “You and me are going to talk. Right now.”
“I have class.”
“Oh, suddenly you’re a perfect student who never ditches? Nice try. Let’s go.”
Maya stumbled after her, following Claire past the gymnasium and the theater that everyone referred to as Little Theater, even though it was the only one on campus and pretty sizable. Finally they were back on the same spot of grass that Maya had always thought of as theirs. It seemed strange that the grass still looked so green and lush, even though they had broken up.
“Okay,” Claire said. The late bell had