Last Day by Luanne Rice Page A

seriouslydeep, dark secret from your teenage daughter—it’s a colossal waste of time.
    Her dad was cheating with Nicola, from the gallery. As soon as it started, Sam felt a storm cloud settle over her house. She began listening at doors, and when her father left his computer on, she read his email. The truth was right there in front of her face: gushy notes to Nicola, sometimes complaining about Sam’s mom. Having a dad who lied, who wanted to be with another woman instead of staying home with his wife and daughter, sucked in a way that made Sam literally sick, to the point she couldn’t concentrate on schoolwork. Or anything.
    Sam listened to her parents whisper and fight in their bedroom with the door closed. She wanted to hear every single detail and pretend it wasn’t happening, both at the same time. One day they walked out of their room, stone faced, and caught her standing in the hallway.
    “I know,” she said.
    “What do you know?” her father asked.
    Sam looked at her mother. From the stricken look in her eyes, Sam could see her mother understood. Her mom had a sixth sense when it came to Sam.
    “Why did you bother dragging me to all those doctors?” Sam asked.
    “Because of your stomachaches,” her father said. “And the fact you’re failing in school.”
    “You can tell him the real reason for that, Sam,” her mother said softly.
    Sam wanted to, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. Her mother said them for her.
    “It’s you,” her mother said.
    “I know about Nicola, Dad,” Sam whispered.
    Her father didn’t hug her or apologize to her mom or anything else. He just stood there as if he had frozen. Sam waited for him to say something. His mouth started to form words, but no sound came out. The tension in that hallway was so intense Sam couldn’t take it anymore. Sheran out of the house and didn’t stop until she got to Hubbard’s Point, across the sandy parking lot and right into Isabel’s arms.
    After that, her parents didn’t even bother to hide their fights. The night her father’s son, Tyler, was born was one of the worst of her life. Sam and her dad were in the den watching Vice Principals on HBO. They were on the couch, feet up on the big footstool, eating ice cream and laughing at who could be the biggest jerk at the school. It felt good, almost normal, as if they were still a real family. But then her mother walked into the room, holding up her dad’s cell phone.
    “You left it in the kitchen,” she said.
    “Yeah, we’re watching the show. Come sit with us,” he said.
    “You have a text,” she said, handing the phone to him. Sam leaned over to read the screen.
    Nicola had texted: My water just broke .
    That was that. Her father didn’t say a word, didn’t kiss her goodbye, just left the house. He didn’t return for two days, and when he did, he didn’t mention Tyler. Sam had to find out the details, the fact that she now had a half brother, by hearing her mother talk on the phone to Isabel’s mom.
    So partying began to make more sense than studying. Isabel was into it too. She had had some family stuff she hadn’t wanted to talk about, but Sam had been able to tell by the way their moms had whispered on the beach that they had had dark secrets in common.
    “Be all right,” Rebecca said.
    Sam looked over at Rebecca, her big brown eyes, blonde hair falling in ringlets to her shoulders, her mouth quivering as if she was about to cry.
    Rebecca wanted to be really close to Sam, but it was impossible, as long as Sam had Isabel. Sam and Isabel had been friends forever, since before the beginning. Their mothers had sat together on the beach when they had been pregnant, the two about-to-be moms in a tightfriendship knot that included Kate and Lulu—both non-mom types. But even so, the four of them were blood-sister close. They even had a name for their friendship—the Compass Rose. Four directions on the compass.
    “I just want to help you,” Rebecca