Chapter 19

Saturday morning, Emily awoke to find Josh already up and making coffee. Considering her younger brother could barely make toast without burning it, she was shocked to find him making coffee in the first place.

“I didn’t know you drank coffee,” she said.

“I started drinking it when I was in juvie.”

“It’s early for you to be up.” Normally Josh didn’t get up until midday on weekends.

He shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.”

Emily slumped down onto one of the rickety kitchen chairs. “I couldn’t either. I kept staring up at the ceiling no matter how hard I tried to shut my eyes and sleep.”

The coffee machine beeped, and Josh brought two mugs to the table. Emily stared at her brother in surprise. Where had the angry, selfish teenager gone? She kept getting whiplash from Josh’s personality changes; she was half-certain she’d get a concussion soon enough.

“Did something happen last night?” said Josh. He was decidedly not looking at Emily when he asked the question.

Last night—Emily swallowed, h