That night Savannah didn’t come home. Mia had no idea what was going on, but Bob didn’t come and ask any questions so she guessed that he must at least know where she was. Unless she’d lied to him.Unsurprisingly, she didn’t sleep well. Every time she tried to block out her thoughts, they came rushing back to haunt her. Did Ryan really like her? Or was it just something that Tyler had made up? But if that was the case, why hadn’t Ryan argued against it? Mia realised she’d hadn’t even given a thought to the article she was meant to be writing. Now Annie wasn’t on her side, she was sure being part of the group again wouldn’t be an option. But right now, that didn’t seem to matter.The next day, Savannah still didn’t come home. When Mia went downstairs for breakfast, both Bob and her mom had gone to the grocery store to do the weekly shop. It wasn’t until after she’d managed to force some toast

That night when Mia came out of the bathroom after brushing her teeth, she noticed that Savannah’s door was ajar. She went to walk right past, but then she began to hear part of a conversation that she couldn’t help but listen to.Savannah was evidently on the phone and talking in an excited whisper.“I told you, this our chance.”Mia couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but something about Savannah’s tone reeled her in.“We’ll just say we’re round each other’s houses. We’ve done it a million times before, so what’s the problem?”Mia edged towards the door a little, hoping to hear clearer.“What about him? Why would I waste my time on a high-school boy when I could have a chance of getting a college one?”Mia furrowed her brow. College boys? Was the high-school boy Savannah was talking about Ryan? Had they broken up?“St

“Come on Savannah. Can’t we just talk about this?”He’d managed to convince her to speak to him after football practice one night, although their conversation was being overseen by half the team and cheerleading squad. That was the problem with having such a high-profile relationship. Everyone was always watching.“What do we have left to talk about, Ryan? You have feelings for my freak of a step-sister. Why would I want to be with you after finding that out?”Ryan ran his fingers through his hair. If he was truthful with himself, he wasn’t even sure why he was fighting for Savannah. Yes, they made sense. But was there really any compatibility there? Especially when she was looking at him like this with that sour face. But he’d been happy before Mia had come along. Everything had made sense. He just wanted everything to go back to normal. His home life was so messed up, that he just wanted this part of his life to

Ryan couldn’t quite believe it when he read the message in front of him. He read it again another three times just to be sure he was reading it right. He was.She actually wanted to talk? And at her house? Without an audience? This had to be something.These last two weeks had been awful. Trying to stay away from Mia had been horrible. A few times he’d caught her hurt expression, and he’d almost caved. But maybe it had all been worth it to prove to Savannah how much he wanted her back.He had decided that if Savannah was going to take him back, he wanted to be honest with her about what was happening with his homelife. Right now, his dad was behaving, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he went back to drinking. When that happened, he hoped Savannah would be there to support him. After all, it had been nice to have Mia aware of what was going on. It had brought them closer together. It was only fair to give Savannah the same opportu

It was the banging that woke her up. Her head felt heavy, and it took her a few moments to realise her face was pressed against the desk. She groaned. Why did her mouth feel like it was made of sawdust?“Mia? Are you up yet? You’ve not come out all morning!”The sound of her mom’s shrill voice sent shockwaves through her head. She manged to sit up but regretted it when her stomach flipped with sickness. She looked through narrowed eyes at the now empty bottle of vodka beside her. Damn. She’d gone hard.“Mia?!”Mia shook herself, if she didn’t respond her mom would come in here. It probably stunk of vodka and she likely didn’t look too good either.“Yes, mom! Just wanted a lie in.”“It’s noon, Mia! Get up!”Mia’s eyes cut to her alarm clock. Damn. It must have been really hard.“Yeah. Just let me get up and shower then I’ll come