Adults contact each other to compare the amount of rain in their rain gauges. Another of the 4,724 reasons I want to leave this town.

Weeks pass. Hamilton and I text or call each other daily. I’m about a month away from move-in day at college. I can’t sleep. Tired of tossing and turning, I climb the stairs from the basement hoping not to see my mother. Walking through the living room, I spot a stranger sleeping on the sofa. Two empty bottles lie on the floor. Seems my mother ...