Keeping 13 (Boys of Tommen, #2)

by Chloe Walsh

“I don’t sing anymore and I don’t dance. My favorite color is green, and I haven’t picked up a basketball since Da stuck a knife through mine for bouncing it against the side of the house. I stopped bringing home animals a long time ago because I realized I didn’t want them to be caged with me—when I realized they were safer in the wild than with me. I’m not going to go to college and become a vet because I’ve failed every single one of my classes for the last three years.”

“Did you know that Sean called Joey ‘Da-Da’ until he was two?”

“Yeah, it has,” I agreed, voice quavering. “And the mother that was so good to you, the Mam you remember, isn’t the one we experienced.” “She’s still your mother.” “See, you keep calling her that, but I only remember having one of those.” “Shannon—” “His name is Joey,” I choked out, fisting the sheets. “The irrelevant one. He’s been our mother, Darren, when our real one checked out.” Tears spilled down my cheeks as I spoke, forcing myself to get it out and for him to hear it. “When you left, something died inside of her. She wasn’t the same. Everything went dark. You think you know, but you don’t. You can’t know because you didn’t see…”