"Dad's voice was the only safe place."
Silver made it back to her room with fifteen minutes before the athletic department meeting.
Americus had gone ahead to scout the situation, leaving Silver alone to pull herself together. She stared at her reflection in the small mirror above her desk. Red eyes. Blotchy face. Hair tangled from the wind on the roof.
She looked exactly how she felt. Wrecked.
Her phone was still off. She should turn it on. Check messages. See what new disasters had unfolded while she was fighting with her mother.
But she couldn't bring herself to do it.
Instead she sat on her bed, trying to remember how to breathe normally. The athletic department meeting loomed. Twenty minutes to figure out what to say. How to defend herself. How to convince them she wasn't a liability.
A knock on the door made her jump.
"It's me," Maya's voice came through. "Can I come in?"
"Yeah."
