Business as Usual (Off The Subject) by Denise Grover Swank

Caroline. She’ll want me to do it.”
    “I’m going to ignore your lack of enthusiasm. I’ll pick you up at eight.” She takes off toward the staircase.
    “Where are we going?”
    She shrugs. “We’ll figure it out.” Then she turns around and heads down the stairs.
    “Wait! What should I wear?” But she’s already out of earshot.
    Now I have to talk to Caroline, which opens the door to a lot of potential questions about last weekend. She knows something great happened and she’s desperate for details. I should just tell her about Rob, but she’ll push harder than Sylvia to find out why I don’t want to go out with him again.
    I suck at keeping secrets.
    It wasn’t so hard to hide the secret of why I broke up with Brandon. I couldn’t stand the thought of sharing my humiliation with the world. But this is different. Caroline, in particular, can see a change in me. She’s been dropping not-so-subtle hints that she knows something’s up. I’m sure she’ll ask me outright when I tell her I’m going out tonight, and I don’t want to lie. I need to come up with a plan of how much to tell her. Only nothing comes to mind. Maybe I should text Sylvia and tell her that I’ve changed my mind.
    But some small part of me screams no.
    If I’m honest with myself, now that the cage door has opened, the social part of me isn’t willing to go back into hiding. While I’m scared to death to go out tonight, I want to have fun. Although Reed has relaxed quite a bit since we first moved here last August, he’s still majorly overprotective. I got him to ease up a bit while I was dating Brandon, but seeing my devastation after our break-up was enough to make my big brother go all caveman again. I understand his reasoning. He’s taken full responsibility for me, and if something happens, he will have to answer to our parents. But I also know this is his way of trying to make up for not being there when I was attacked last spring.
    As always, I’m torn between my desire to appease Reed and my desire to live my life. The only reason I got away with coming home so late last weekend was because Caroline covered for me, telling Reed that the cast party went late into the night. But I know I can’t keep relying on Caroline to smooth things over. I’ve caused enough strain in their relationship, and I don’t want to be the source of more.
    Reed won’t be home until after six, but as expected, I find Caroline home. What’s unexpected is that I find her in the kitchen cooking dinner.
    “What smells so good?”
    She’s wearing an apron smeared with tomato sauce and holding a wooden spoon in her hand. She’s looking down at her phone on the counter. “Lasagna.”
    “Yum.”
    “Well, maybe not. I think I’ve screwed up the layers.” She sounds upset, so I drop my coat and purse on a kitchen chair and head into the kitchen.
    She turns to me with tears in her eyes. “I can’t even make a damn lasagna.”
    “Hey!” I try to hide the fact her tears freak me out. It’s not like Caroline to cry over something so inconsequential. “It can’t be that bad. It smells delicious.”
    She backs up against the counter, pointing to the stove with the spoon. “First I forgot to put the garlic in the sauce, then I overcooked the noodles. Then I dumped most of the cheese on the bottom layer, and I didn’t even put the ricotta down first.” A fat tear rolls down her cheek.
    “Caroline, who cares? Just throw it together and you know we’ll eat it.”
    She looks up at me. “I wanted to cook for Reed. You both know I’m not capable of making anything more complicated than macaroni and cheese.” Two more tears fall.
    “And your Kraft mac and cheese is legendary. Who cares? We love you anyway.”
    She chokes back a sob.
    Now I’m really scared. “Caroline, what’s really going on?”
    Her chin trembles. “I think Reed’s having second thoughts.” She bites the corner of her mouth. “I think he might be seeing someone