“Keep an eye on the neighbors, okay?” I say quietly. “The girl who lives there just gave me some weird warning about how her brothers are going to pay me back for insulting blondie earlier.”
Her lips curve downward. “That’s a little creepy.”
I let go of her arm. “Just make sure to keep an eye out.”
She nods then motions for Bailey to follow her.
As Bailey passes me, she pats me on the back. “Glad to see you’re still good at making friends, sis.”
“Don’t you know it,” I tease back.
But all my humor dies as I climb into the car and note someone watching me from the upstairs window of the house next door.
Great, only an hour here and I’ve already stirred up drama.
4
HADLEY
Searchingfor my dad ends up being a bust.
After driving around for over an hour, I give up and return to the house, convinced he must have left town or something. The area is too small not to be able to find him, and from what I could tell, I looked practically everywhere, except for in the hills.
By the time I pull up into the driveway, it’s late and everyone is getting grumpy. I decide to break in through a cracked open window since we can’t afford to crash in a hotel.
Once we get all our stuff inside, we dig out some sleeping bags and set them up on the dusty brown carpet in the living room.
“This is by far the worst move ever,” Bailey mutters as she wiggles around in her sleeping bag, trying to get comfortable.
Payton sneezes from all the dust floating around. She has her flashlight app on, giving us a bit of light since the place doesn’t have the power turned on yet, even though I called and had it scheduled to turn on. It’s too late to get it taken care of now.
“I don’t know,” she says, rubbing her nose. “Move six was pretty bad.”
I fluff my pillow then lie down. “Was that the one where the toilet flooded the basement two days after we moved in?”
“Yep.” Payton sneezes again, her eyes watering. “Everything smelled like moldy shit for a month.”
“Move five was pretty bad, too,” Londyn says as she slips into her sleeping bag that’s beside mine.
“Which one was that?” I ask, setting an alarm on my phone so we can get up bright and early and figure out what to do about our situation.
“The one with the rat’s nest in the attic.” Londyn rolls to her side, facing me. “Honestly, none of them have been that great.”
“Yeah, I know.” I wiggle around, trying to get situated on the thin carpet.
I did a quick walk-through when we got in and discovered that only half the rooms have carpet, the other half have linoleum flooring. The kitchen is bigger than what we’ve had before, but it doesn’t have a microwave or dishwasher, and there’s only one bathroom.
“At least we have a roof over our heads,” I attempt optimism.
“One day, I’m afraid we won’t,” Bailey mumbles, curling up into a ball and pulling the sleeping bag over her head.
“That will never happen,” I assure her, reaching over Payton to give her shoulder a squeeze. “I won’t let it.”
“You won’t always be here,” Bailey whispers. “You have one more year left of high school, and then you’re going to take off to college and we’re going to be stuck here with Dad.”
Guilt tightens my chest. I want to tell her everything will be okay, but the words won’t leave my lips. The truth is, I have no idea what will happen once I pack up my stuff and take off for college. I haven’t really thought about it too much, never allowed myself to think about it. But deep down, I know the change is going to affect them big time, and that makes me feel guilty.
“Stop worrying. I can handle things,” Londyn assures me, as if reading my mind.