Chapter 38: Hard truths

LEO

I was still a little hung over the next morning when my alarm went off. I texted Quinn that I was going in late to school, so she wouldn't be waiting for me to pick her up, but she never responded. I worried about that for about ten seconds before I went back to sleep.

By the time I woke up again, it was after lunch. It seemed pointless to drag my ass into school for two classes, so I stayed home, planning to play the sick mom card that had given me so much wiggle room this year. I'd learned that all I had to tell them in the office was that my mom was still in the hospital, and my absence or tardiness was excused. It was like a get-out-of-jail-free card. Not that I wouldn't trade that for my mother being healthy again, of course, but I figured I needed any break I could catch just now.

I'd just gotten a shower and was actually getting ready to go see my mother when the doorbell rang. Quinn, I thought. She'd gotten my text and was worried about me. I grinned a little, thinking t