Annie feels her skin get hot. She had wanted nothing more than what Paulo just proposed, and her mother shot it down without a thought. “Why did you have to be so mean to him?” Annie snaps. “What are you talking about? I wasn’t mean.” “Yes, you were!” “Annie—” “You were!” “He’s just a boy—” “God, Mom! Why do you have to be here all the time? I’m so sick of you! You treat me like an infant! You’re the reason I have no friends!” Her mother squeezes her lips, as if biting back something she wants to yell. She shifts her hands on the steering wheel. “Do your exercises,” she says.
