“Sophie?” My mom stops in shock, taking me in, while my dad bumps into her with wide-mouthed silence. It’s almost like that stomach-lurching moment when your parents discover you have a piercing somewhere on your face, as Leila once did, or that time they spotted my rose tattoo on the base of my spine, the one Arrick took me for when I was seventeen, and went ape shit over it.

“Hey... Ummm, do you like it?” I flick the edge of my hair up cutely. Chewing nervously on my lip. ...