Had I misunderstood the conversation we had in the club room? I had to see him the next day, and the day after, and the day after that. I would never live this down. That was a bad idea. A very bad idea. Could someone conjure up a time machine so I could take that back? Why did I have to run back out? I could've shut the door and stayed inside, and things would still be normal.

Amongst the chaos that had been the last few months, Parker had been one of the few constants. Had what I'd done just jeopardised that? I sat at my desk the entire afternoon with my textbook open, but only managed a couple of illegible scribbles in my notebook.

Maybe I could tell him that I'd been possessed. Or had an out of body experience. Maybe an atypical seizure?

The creaking of the bedroom door interrupted my elaborate excuse planning. "Daisy? I think we should talk," my mum said, sitting down on my bed. I swiveled my chair around to face her. "I went to high school, and I've seen my fair share of TV dramas, and I know high school can be rough. What happened on Tuesday?"

This was not a topic I could handle. My heart was too busy fibrillating for me to deal with her love life. "It's fine," I said.

"I want to fix this. You're my number one priority and if I don't know what's going on, I can't fix it." She leaned forwards and her eyes were soft. She was in full mum mode and I wasn't going to get away that easily.

"It's not a problem with me mum. It's about you."

"About me?"

"I need you to be honest with me."

"You're scaring me," she said. "Why would I lie to you? What is it?"

"Who's Mark Aurelio?"

"Mark? He's a work colleague. How do you know him?"

"I mean, what was he doing at our house?"

"We were working late on the case and he didn't want his employees taking public transport that late."

"But why did he drive you home? Don't you work with anyone else?" I unintentionally snapped.

"Daisy...what is this really about?"

I hung my head in my hands. "Everyone at my school thinks you're the reason that Courtney's parents are splitting up," I admitted quietly.

"His daughter? Me?" She exclaimed. "Oh no, that's not what happened."

"It's not?" I lifted my head quickly and my ears perked up.

"I'm on his defense team for the divorce. It got a little messy because a PI was involved, and they got some compromising photos of him. That's why we've been working overtime." I knew there was client attorney privilege involved. She opened and shut her mouth a couple of times but said nothing more. "I'm so sorry Daisy. I would never do that. The last thing on my mind is seeing someone right now." She looked horrified. And I felt worse.

"I'm so sorry mum," I sobbed. I was so embarrassed that I'd suspected her of such a thing. She'd been working early mornings and late nights to make ends meet and I was busy jumping to conclusions.

"It's okay Daisy," she said, pulling me close. She squeezed me tight. "If you were worried about it, you could've come to me." She moved away and she wiped the tears from my cheeks. I sniffed and wiped with the sleeve of my sweater. "What can I do to make this better for you?"

"It's okay," I smiled. I could handle anything that came my way now, because I knew she was innocent. The only shame I felt now was that I'd been able to think up something like that.

"I can ask Mark to talk to his daughter about it or – "

"No. It's okay mum. I can handle this on my own." She hugged me tight again.

"I'm so sorry that my work caused all these problems for you," she apologised, yet again. I cried a little more and I could see a small tear glistening in the corner of her eye too. "Let me go get us some ice cream. We haven't done much together this year. Let's watch a movie," she smiled before leaving my room.

My heart felt light. And the first person I wanted to call was Parker.

"Hey," he answered.

"It's not true!" I exclaimed, pacing frantically around the room. "She's not having an affair with Courtney's dad." I was beaming as I finally verbalised it.

"I'm glad. You sound relieved," he replied. "So what was it?" I explained the whole situation to him, not even taking a breath in between, just in case the phone cut off and I couldn't let it all off my chest. "Breathe, Pizza, breathe," he chuckled.

Then I had nothing else to say, and I was left questioning why the hell I'd called him in the first place. "Okay, bye." I hung up. My mind was buzzing, and my heart was racing.

I went back out to the living room where my mum had taken out some ice cream and pulled out a couple of DVDs. "What should we watch?" She asked, holding up some options. We binged on a pint of cookies and cream ice cream while watching 13 Going on 30, laughing until our sides were sore.

She fell asleep on the couch and I went to grab a blanket to put over her. She was snoring softly but sleeping peacefully. I hadn't noticed in a while, but the wrinkles on her forehead and around her eyes had started to deepen. The bags underneath her eyes were dark and puffy. It made my heart ache. I switched the lights off and cleaned up the remnants of our ice cream.

Now that I knew the truth, I just needed to get Courtney off my back. I slipped into my mum's room and sifted through her briefcase. I'm not invading my mum's privacy, I rationalised. It's Courtney's dad's privacy.

I easily found the photos taken by the PI of Courtney's dad with his secretary. Indeed, they were rather compromising photos. I photocopied two that clearly showed it was a much younger woman who could not possibly be old enough to be my mum.

How could he have done this to Courtney? To her mum? Was an illicit affair worth losing it all? No wonder Courtney'd been vomiting up her guts at the party and needlessly vicious. Would I have reacted any differently? I tucked the photos into my bag.

I'll only use them if I need to.

---

PS. I'm undergoing massive editing on the first 6 or so chapters (esp the first 3) because after re-reading them I DIE. I like to think the story's gotten much more interesting since - what do you guys think?