Lost Along the Way by Erin Duffy

one another. Why don’t you understand that? Do you think the guys at the club or at my firm are going to differentiate between her husband and her? They are both lying,thieving, pathetic excuses for human beings and she is not welcome in this house. What were you thinking when you told her she could stay?” he asked.
    â€œI was thinking she was an old friend who needed help.”
    â€œShe’s no friend of mine, and I told you that years ago. Why don’t you start caring about what I want and about how you can help me? That should be your concern. I’m your husband, Cara. I’m your number one priority.”
    â€œOkay. I don’t want to fight about this anymore,” Cara said.
    â€œGood. I’m going to work. It’s nine thirty in the morning, and I’m already aggravated. Honestly, other men have no idea how lucky they are to be able to get out of the house without having to solve a million different problems first. I don’t know why I can’t be one of them. Also, don’t forget it’s Friday. I want the sheets on my bed changed today. Don’t think I didn’t realize you didn’t get around to doing it until Saturday last week. I hate starting the weekend with dirty sheets. You know that. And grab my shirts at the dry cleaner this afternoon, too. They’ve been ready since Wednesday.”
    â€œOkay,” Cara said quietly. She sounded defeated.
    The Cara Jane remembered wouldn’t have ever put up with this. The Cara she knew was so much stronger than this. The Cara she knew was someone different entirely.
    June 1994
    â€œWe shouldn’t be here!” Meg whispered, even though there was no one around to hear her.
    â€œThat’s why it’s fun. If we were allowed to be here, this wouldn’t be worth doing!” Jane said as she pulled out a pair of bolt cutters she’d managed to borrow from one of the maintenance men at school—neither Cara nor Meg wanted to know how—from the large duffel bag she had thrown over her shoulder.
    â€œWhat if we get in trouble?” Meg asked again.
    â€œWe graduate tomorrow. What are they going to do to us? Give us detention?” Jane answered. She was really going to miss Meg and her rule-abiding, scaredy-cat ways. She wondered if Meg would loosen up at all when she went to Vanderbilt in August or if she would spend the next four years of her life in college drinking sodas and turning papers in early. “Besides, Cara needs this.”
    â€œI still don’t know why we’re here!” Cara said. “I’m not much in the mood for a midnight stroll.”
    â€œWhy?” Jane asked sarcastically. “Because you just discovered that your boyfriend is cheating on you with a sophomore on the cheerleading team?”
    â€œYes,” Cara said through gritted teeth. “There are too many things wrong with that sentence to even count.”
    â€œI can’t believe him,” Meg said. “If I ever see him again I’m going to smack him.”
    â€œThanks, Meg,” Cara said. “I seriously can’t believe that I am only a few hours away from graduating high school at the ripe age of eighteen, and I’ve already been ditched for a younger girl with a set of pom-poms. Thinking about it makes me so mad I could hurt someone. Like I might lose my mind.”
    Jane watched as Cara squeezed her hands into fists so tightly her thumbnail actually broke the skin and drew blood. “Good! Channel your anger. That’s exactly what I want you to do,” Jane cheered, despite the fact that there was nothing happy about this entire situation.
    â€œWhy are we here, Jane? Seriously, tell me,” Cara ordered.
    â€œWe’re here because I am a genius and I refuse to let your last memories of high school be of that asshole and the fact that he ruined the best thing that ever happened to him.” With one click, Jane used the bolt cutters to