Free Overnight by Adele Griffin

as don’t upset Mom and don’t cry and be brave for Robby and keep it down and please no more crying and we all have to pull our weight around here, Gray! were harder to follow.
    She did try, even though she wanted her old mom back. The livelier, more fun mom that she used to have. The mom who took Gray and Robby to SpaceRollers restaurant on Sunday nights, the mom who turned raking leaves in the backyard into a family game. That mom always wanted Gray and Robby to experience things. Taste this soup, Gray. More pepper, do you think? Listen, Gray. That’s a jaybird. Look, look, Gray, up at the skywriter! Oh, Gray, can you smell that awful factory smoke? Peee-yew!
    Before she got sick, she had been more radiant with life than any mom. Always she had led the way, waltzing ahead and doubling back, circling and coaxing Gray and Robby into the enchantment of what she saw and heard and knew.
    Gray missed her old mom, but she respected the new rules.
    Not one single rule in her life had prepared her for this night.
    Gray looked from Drew to Katrina and back again. The two of them seemed to shine with a jittery energy. Gray could not see if these people had RIGHT or WRONG stamped across them. They were mixed-up and smeary. They blurred.
    If a real grown-up were here, the grown-up would know what kind of danger might flood this house. Gray could not tell. She tried but she could not grasp it.
    “I have to go to the bathroom,” she said.
    Drew pointed to the bathroom door. His eyes remained on Katrina.
    “I can’t believe you went out,” he said. “I can’t believe you took the car and went out. After what I told you. Did you run into anybody? Anyone you know?”
    “No, nobody. I’m sorry I went out,” Kat answered. “I didn’t think you’d be mad.” She did not sound very sorry. She sounded as if she were speaking to finish up the conversation.
    Gray looked from Drew to Kat and back again. Searching for clues and rules.
    Would they take her home? Would they hurt her?
    She didn’t know. She escaped to the bathroom and locked the door.
    She stayed in the bathroom for a while, searching. There was nothing to find. In the medicine cabinet was a bottle of mouthwash, dental tape, a bottle of pills to stop burping. On the windowsill was an abandoned spiderweb in which was trapped a husk that might once have been a small fly. On the toilet tank was an air deodorizer in the shape of a sleeping unicorn. In the shower was a piece of soap worn thin as a tongue.
    These people no they are not bad no because if these people were bad shouldn’t there be more dangerous clues lying around?
    She could lock the door and stay in this bathroom all night. She could sleep in the tub. Shut her eyes and wait for her parents to find her. Maybe they were already on her trail!
    She climbed in the tub and hugged her arms around her knees. Closed her eyes and tried to transport herself to somewhere else.
    Right at this moment, she bet Martha Van Riet was saying awful things about her. That’s what Martha did whenever one of the group was not around. Last week, it had been Zoë who was absent, and Martha spent the whole day slamming her.
    All those terrible things she said! Like, “I could put a leash on Zoë’s eyebrows and walk them as pets, ha ha ha!” And, “Have you ever noticed how know-it-all Zoë talks like she’s got a stick up her butt, ha ha ha!” And, “You know, once I heard a rumor that Zoë French-kissed a dog on a truth-or-dare last year at camp!”
    Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!
    Everyone laughed and said no way and that’s so gross, Mar, and everyone sort of came to Zoë’s defense, but not really.
    Now Martha was probably slamming her. Caitlin would be over-ready to laugh about Gray, too, since Gray had wrecked her birthday party.
    The bathroom was beginning to feel cramped and suffocating. From behind the door was silence. Had Drew and Katrina left the house? Left her behind? Was it safer that way, to be here in this house