Free Stitches and Stones by Chloe Taylor Page B

lady with the blog?” her dad asked. “And where?”
    â€œTen thirty,” Zoey said. “At A Stitch in Time. Her name’s Allie, and she designs handbags and accessories.”
    â€œHow old is this Allie again?” Mr. Webber asked.
    â€œShe’s in high school,” Zoey said. “Her mom is coming too.”
    â€œMaybe I should start a music site,” Marcus said. “Zoey gets to meet all these people and be on TV and in magazines because of her blog. I’m so proud of you, sis!”
    Zoey was about to say that it wasn’t all about meeting cool people—there were some bad parts too. But she decided to wait and speak to her father when they were alone. Would Marcus be proud of her if he knew what people were saying?

    She finally got her opportunity to talk to her dad when they were in the car on the way to A Stitch in Time.
    â€œDad, I need to talk to you about something.”
    â€œGo ahead, Zo. Shoot.”
    â€œWell . . . it’s my blog. It just started this week, but . . . there have been all these horrible commentson it. Really mean stuff. It’s been awful. I’ve tried blocking the users, but then new users come and say the same kinds of things. I don’t know who is doing it . . . but I hate it! It’s making Sew Zoey not fun anymore.”
    â€œHoney—that’s terrible! Why didn’t you say something to me before now?”
    â€œYou haven’t been home that much this week,” Zoey pointed out. “And when you have been home, you’ve been really tired. And I didn’t know what to say. I was also a little embarrassed, and I thought I could take care of it myself.”
    â€œI’m so sorry, Zoey. I got a little behind on reading your blog since work has been crazy. But I thought I was mostly caught up and”—he paused as he came to a realization—“Oh! I guess I usually just read the blog posts, not the comments.”
    â€œThat’s okay, Dad,” Zoey said, remembering her blog posts often received dozens of comments—sometimes more than a hundred. “Besides, I think I deleted all the bad ones, so you might have missed them. I just don’t know what else to do. Can you please help me make it stop?”
    At that, she burst into tears. They were tears of hurt and tears of relief and tears of frustration, and she couldn’t stop them from flowing.
    â€œOf course I will, Zo. I’ll do everything I can to get to the bottom of this,” her father said. “I’m sorry work has been so crazy that I haven’t been around as much this week.”
    He stopped the car at the red light and looked at her, dabbing her eyes with a tissue before rubbing her back.
    â€œZoey, I want you to remember you and Marcus are always my number-one priority, no matter what else is going on, so if you’re upset about something, you can tell me about it no matter how tired I am from work. Do you understand that?”
    Zoey nodded. She felt like if she spoke again, she’d let loose another flood of tears. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
    â€œOkay, then. I mean it. Anything. Don’t forget.”
    The light changed, and they continued up the street, then turned into the parking lot for A Stitch in Time.
    â€œLeave this to me, Zoey,” her dad said as hepulled into a spot. “I have an idea about what we can do.”
    Zoey was so relieved that her dad was handling everything now and that he hadn’t totally freaked out and told her she couldn’t ever blog again. She wished she had spoken to him earlier.
    They stayed in the parked car for a few minutes. Mr. Webber gave Zoey one of his famous bear hugs, and Zoey felt better than she had in days.
    â€œJust take some deep breaths, and we’ll go in when you’re ready,” he said.
    â€œDo I look okay?” Zoey asked, glancing at her red-rimmed eyes in the