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need to remember. I don’t understand what Bianca and Britain have done to you, but we have to end this.”
    “ I’m fine, mom. I’m not going with Kara; I need to be here.”
    I held my breath and prepared to fight with her. I had a fear of going home – it wasn’t that it was bad there – I loved Salem…I just felt like right now it needed to be a secret. I didn’t want what I’d forgotten to be led there. I would rather know I had a place to run to if things got as bad as I could feel them getting.
    “ This is last place you need to be – you need to get away from those people. I thought about skipping your graduation…but I didn’t raise you to be a coward and run – we’re leaving the moment you walk that line.”
    “ Mom – seriously – you don’t understand...I can’t right now – I’m not done.”
    “ Done with what?” she asked shortly as she crossed her arms.
    I bit my bottom lip as l let my spoon fall into my bowl. I didn’t know how to answer her. I didn’t understand what I was trying to say to her…I couldn’t remember…I just knew that this sick feeling…my stomach tying itself it knots was a warning, and I had to stay here.
    “ I don’t know right now…I can’t take this back to Salem with me,” I answered finally.
    “ You are going to have to give me a better reason than that to let you stay here – you’re playing a dangerous game, Charlie… and you don’t need to play it alone.”
    “ If you don’t want me to be alone, then ask Madison to come here for the summer – that’s a compromise.”
    My mother’s face flushed, and she turned white as a ghost. “Madison? Is that the only person you want me to ask to come here?”
    I looked at her like she was crazy. “You can ask Kara to stay, too, if you want – she wouldn’t notice where she is; all she cares about is having time to write.”
    My mother took in a shaky breath, then turned to put her water back in the fridge. As she closed the door, she looked back at me. “You’re going to them. I don’t know what Britain did to you, but I want you home where I know you’re safe.”
    “ He didn’t do anything to me, mom – he’s not the problem...I can feel that. I have to protect him.”
    “ From?” my mother asked, encouraging me to find the answer to my random thoughts.
    “ I don’t know… something, though.”
    “ He thinks you’re a couple – is that true? Are you hiding something from me, Charlie?”
    “ We’re just friends – nothing else.”
    She slowly moved her head from side to side as her eyes stared vacantly at me. “I don’t know, sleeping beauty – he has a different perspective, and that’s dangerous, very dangerous.”
    “ Your read my texts?! That’s uncalled for!”
    “ How is it uncalled for? I read a text on a phone that I paid for, in an apartment that I paid for.”
    “ Right,” I said, rolling my eyes and refusing to let her pull me into this argument.
    “ The texts today have been entertaining, to say the least,” she said in a concerned tone.
    “ Let me guess: I’m grounded from my phone.”
    “ I haven’t decided yet,” she said, raising her eyebrows the way she always does when she contemplates her next move.
    “ I need it, mom,” I said in a more approachable tone.
    She walked slowly to the bar where I was sitting and leaned forward, holding my stare. “You don’t need the music, Charlie; all you need is this,” she said, pointing to my temple.
    “ Mom, please don’t make me explain why I need it – not now – I’m tired.”
    She tilted her head. “I need to know that if you were put in a position where you did not have your music, you would be fine – this is the first step to making you stronger – to bringing my Charlie back.”
    “ It’s not a step, mom – it’s a leap – it’s unfair. You hate music, so you want me to – if you only knew what I did.”
    “ I know what you know and so much more – you’re not going to spend the