Page 16 of Bending Under Pressure

“Hmm,” I hum. “I’ll give you a free pass this time.”

Her lips quickly lift into a smile. “Thank you.” We stop in front of the sugar. “How much does she need?”

“She probably wants the biggest bag.” I try to recall which brand Mom buys, but come up short. Sugar is sugar, right? Reluctantly, I release Haley’s hand and pick up a large bag of sugar. “C’mon, let’s get the eggs next. You can carry those. I don’t want to be the only one doing all the heavy lifting.”

She laughs. “Yeah, because eggs are so heavy,” she replies sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“Maybe a dozen eggs aren’t, but two? I’ll be shocked if you can carry them all the way to the register by yourself.”

She makes a show of lifting two dozen eggs, grunting a little like she does when she plays tennis, and she groans once or twice on the way to check out. I laugh and it’s good to see her in a better mood. However, once we’re on the way back to the tennis courts, her mood shifts again.

“Do you want to come over and hang out?”

“I don’t know,” she replies as I park next to her car. “My head is full of crap and if I hang out with you, I might say it all. I’ll quickly go from the cute and interesting new girl to the girl who probably needs a therapist just to have someone to talk to.”

“Come anyway. Mom might need help with the dessert.”

Haley thinks about it for a minute before nodding. “Okay, but you’ve been warned.” She gets out and into her car to follow me home. At least having Haley with me, Mom won’t show her annoyance with me taking forever to run to the store and back.

I take my place in the driveway and Haley parks behind me. When I get out, I see her on the phone, looking angry and upset again. She lifts her finger to let me know she’ll be a minute. I head on inside.

“What took you so long? I could have made three trips by now,” Mom says when I walk into the kitchen.

“Sorry, I ran into Haley, and she seemed upset, so she went with me to the store.”

Mom stops what she’s doing, covered in flour now, and faces me. “Is she okay?”

“I don’t know. Something happened, so I invited her over to hang out for a while.”

Before Mom can speak, Haley walks into the kitchen, her eyes slightly red. “Hey, Mrs. Sanderson.” She gives a weak smile.

“You know you can call me Octavia. Want to help me? Keelan, leave us girls to it.” Mom gives me a pointed look when I open my mouth to object.

I smile at Haley before I walk out. I know Mom shooed me out because she wants to try to comfort Haley. Mom could get a wall to open up about its feelings. She just has that way about her, and I know if Hales will talk, Mom can make her feel better.

An hour passes before I start getting antsy about what’s going on in the kitchen. When I reach the threshold, I stop in my tracks. Mom is hugging a crying Haley. Neither notices me.

“It’ll be okay,” Mom soothes. “All yo

u need to remember is that you did nothing wrong. You’re a sweet, beautiful girl, and if he doesn’t know already, he’ll come to realize what he’s missing out on by doing this to you. Sounds like you have your mom and her husband in your corner, so don’t shut them out, okay?”

“It hurts so much,” Haley mumbles through her tears into Mom’s shoulder.

“I know, I know.”

Mom catches me standing in the doorway and glares. I hold up my hands in surrender before quietly returning to my room. I feel bad for Haley and her family issues. It doesn’t look like she’s dealing with it well either.

This time, only half an hour passes before Haley comes into my room.

“Hey,” I say, sitting up on my bed. “Done baking?”

“Yeah.” She folds her arms over her chest, looking a little unsure.

“Want to relax before going home?”

Her mouth opens and then shuts. I take that as a yes, so I stand, slip on my shoes, grab a pillow, and wave my hand for her to follow me. We go downstairs and outside through the backdoor. I lead her to our hammock. I place the pillow before crawling on, lying down, and looking to Haley.

“C’mon, Hales.”

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