Chloe looked toward the van.
I wanted the asphalt to open and swallow me whole.
Inside the dorm, my parents somehow made things worse.
Not because they were rude.
The opposite.
They were painfully friendly.
Dad held doors for strangers.
Mom helped another girl’s grandmother carry a box.
They offered Chloe’s parents bottled water.
Dad volunteered to help move a shelf.
Mom complimented Chloe’s lamp. They acted completely normal.
They just looked like they’d spent the previous night under an overpass.
Every time I looked at Chloe, she seemed quieter.
Then two other girls from our floor came into the room.
Chloe greeted them.
A few minutes later, I heard her whisper, “I didn’t know.”
The girls glanced in my direction.
I frowned. “Didn’t know what?”
Then Chloe’s mother asked my mom. “So, what do you do?”
My mother paused. That alone got my attention.
She has had the same job for 14 years.
“Oh,” Mom said, “a little bit of everything.”
I nearly dropped the lamp I was holding.
What?
Her mother nodded slowly. “Oh.”
There was that word again.
I looked at Dad.
He was focused very hard on assembling a shelf. Too hard.
I grabbed Mom’s sleeve. “Can you come into the hallway?”
Dad immediately stood. “I’ll come too.”
“No. Actually, yes. Both of you.”
The second the door shut behind us, I whispered, “What is wrong with you?”
Mom blinked. “What?”
“This.”
I pointed between them.
“The clothes. The van. The bags. The weird answers.”
Dad said nothing.
“Are you trying to embarrass me?”
“No.”
“Then what are you doing?”
My parents looked at each other.
That look made me even angrier. “See? That. You’ve been doing that all morning.”
Dad lowered his voice. “We did it on purpose.”
I stared at him. “What?”
“The clothes. The van. All of it.”
I blinked. Mom nodded.
I actually laughed because I couldn’t process what I was hearing.
“You deliberately dressed like this?”
“Yes.”
“You deliberately packed my stuff in trash bags?”
Mom lifted a finger. “That part was my idea.”
I stared at her. “Why?”
Dad glanced toward the dorm room door.
Then he said, “Because I wanted to see how your roommate treated you.”
I froze. “What?”
He leaned back against the wall. “Just listen before you get mad.”
“I’m already mad.”
“Fair.”
“Why would you test Chloe? You don’t know her.”
“No.”
“Then this is insane.”
