dropping by. It’s not fair to him. And you of all people should understand that.”
“Do not talk to your mother that way,” Mr. Clarke growled.
I started to sidestep out of the way. “Maybe I’ll just—”
“Stay,” Courteney said firmly. “They’re going.”
I stood there, feeling awful. For Cary. For his sister. For whatever this horrible tension was that looked like it was about to crack her dad’s jaw.
“We’re leaving,” Mr. Clarke announced. “When Cary’s calmed down, you tell him to call us.”
“Right,” Courteney said bitterly. “Calmed down. Nice, Dad. He has, like, catastrophic anxiety that almost killed him and you guys always send him spiraling. Why can’t you understand that and respect his boundaries?”
“We didn’t mean to upset him, dear,” Mrs. Clarke said, looking a little panicky herself.
“Please. Just leave.”
Mrs. Clarke glanced at me. All I wanted was to be on the other side of those closed doors with Cary, but he’d locked me out. He’d locked us all out. I’d called his phone, texted him, but he didn’t answer. And his mom was looking at me like I was supposed to know what to say here, because she sure as hell didn’t. She looked utterly stupefied, her face drained of color, like she’d never experienced a moment like this in her life.
But how could that be true?
I could feel the resentment seething off her daughter right next to me.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
Mrs. Clarke said nothing.
Courteney looked at the ceiling while her parents let themselves out. Then she went and locked the front door behind them. “God, I hate them sometimes.” She took a deep breath, seemed to collect herself, then looked at me. “I’m sorry you had to be in the middle of that.”
I still wasn’t sure what that even was.
“Courteney, what happened?” I asked her, lost. “Your parents showed up with a birthday gift for Cary, so I let them in. I had no idea I wasn’t supposed to do that. I wish I’d known.” All Courteney had told me when she messaged me earlier this week to let me know his birthday was coming up was that he didn’t like to celebrate his birthday.
But lots of people didn’t like to make a big deal out of their birthday. Danica was one of them.
But this… this was something else.
“This isn’t your fault,” she assured me. “I should’ve warned you. Fuck. My brother’s relationship with our mom and dad is a natural disaster. I pretty much have to call in the National Guard to sort through the debris every time they do this shit.”
“They didn’t really do anything, though,” I said carefully. “He just showed up and found them here.”
“Yeah. That’s the problem.” She pulled out her phone. “I’m just gonna text him to let him know they’re gone, and you and I are here. It might not do any good just now, though.”
Oh, God. My stomach was sinking.
“What the fuck did I do?” I said, feeling kind of panicked myself.
Courteney sent her text and tucked her phone away. “Okay, how do I put this…” She rubbed her face and looked around the room, at the framed photos halfway up the stairs above us. At the closed studio doors. “They hurt him a lot, Taylor.”
“I’m so sorry, Courteney. I didn’t know. He just came home and he freaked out when he found them here. He locked himself in the studio…”
“I know. Here.” She gave me a hug and I felt the tears creeping up. I blinked them back. “What did he do, exactly? What did he say?”
“He barely said anything. He just went very pale and vanished. He locked me out.”
“It’ll be okay, Taylor,” she said, but I wasn’t sure she really believed it. “There’s just so much crap in that relationship, it’s hard to explain. I totally blame Mom and Dad for that. They know they’re not supposed to ambush him like this or show up uninvited and unannounced. They don’t take these things seriously, but they should.”
I still wasn’t sure what she meant when she said these things. “Please explain this to me. I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Courteney took my arm and guided me to the living room, where we sat down. “Okay. Let me try to explain this for you. All the shit my brother’s been through, and all his… difficulties… after Gabe died? My parents just don’t understand any of it. Or they pretend not to. They totally abandoned him when he fell apart. Mentally, emotionally. Physically.”
“Oh, fuck. I didn’t know. He never mentioned that