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Emma looked at me and then back to the bags of rubbish and overflowing bins in front of the garage, along with a black bin liner overflowing with wet clothes.
“That’s not like her dad to let it get like this,” I replied, frowning. “He’s really particular about the appearance of the house.”
“Do you think they’ve given Ana and Theo jobs to do and they’re not doing them?” Her gaze whipped to mine. “Maybe that was why she was doing the shopping. Perhaps the garden is Theo’s job.”
I shrugged. “I have no clue.” I took her hand in mine. “Come on let’s go.”
She pulled me to a stop. “Do you think Theo is home?” Whipping her lip gloss out of her jeans’ pocket, she slicked it on.
Ana’s older brother, Theo, was twenty and still lived at home after dropping out of uni after just a year. He was also extremely pretty. A much softer version of Ana, but taller and with muscles.
“He’s probably at his girlfriend’s house,” I said. “Whichever one he’s seeing at the moment.”
“I don’t believe everything that Ana says about his sex life.”
She didn’t want to believe her. We’d all had a crush on Theo, right from the age of eleven when he grew five inches just after his fourteenth birthday. Emma, however, had always taken it a step further believing she was in with a chance. She wasn’t.
Once she felt she was ‘Theo ready’ we continued on up the drive to the front door. Before we could talk ourselves out of it, I rang the doorbell. It took a few minutes, but eventually the door was pulled open by Ana.
I held back my gasp, but Emma didn’t. Ana looked terrible. Her bobbed hair was scraped back in a short stubby ponytail, her clothes were grubby, and there were dark grey circles under her eyes.
“What are you doing here?” she snapped, stepping out of the house and pulling the door closed behind her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
If I didn’t think before something was wrong, I did then, seeing my friend who was part angry, part scared that we, her best friends, had shown up at her house. That hurt my heart because Ana and I had always been the best of friends. I loved Liv and Emma, but Ana was my person.
“What’s going on?” Emma was right in there. “Why do you look like that? Why were you pissed at school?”
Ana’s eyes widened. “Bloody hell, Emma,” she said, glancing behind her, “shout it why don’t you? My mum will hear you.”
“Your mum is home?” I questioned. “Why isn’t she at work?”
“She just isn’t, okay. Now just go.” Ana’s eyes were suddenly wild, darting between Emma and me, then down towards the end of the drive. “You should have called me.”
There was something serious going on, and it was obvious that Ana wasn’t coping with it. Her appearance, the state of the garden and the drive, her being drunk and her mum not being at work—it all added up to something that we, as her friends we, shouldn’t ignore.
I thought about what Dad had said, that we should help her with whatever it was troubling her. I knew that she probably would never speak to me again, but I wasn’t prepared to let her fall deeper into the pit of hell that she was clearly in.
Without giving her any warning, I pushed past her, shoved the door open and strode inside.
“Maddy, no!” Ana yelled—screamed, in fact—making a grab for my arm.
“Ana, we just want to help you,” Emma said behind me, her voice strained like she was struggling with something.
The door to the lounge was immediately off the small hallway, so I opened it, going in search of Susan, Ana’s mum. Straight away, it was obvious what part of the issue was, because she was lying on the sofa, passed out with a bottle of vodka clutched to her chest. The room was a mess, it stunk of bleach, though—I assumed from cleaning up puke, since it was the same odour as Emma’s house after we’d taken care of Ana. The curtains at the patio doors to the garden were closed, so the dining room end of the room was in a half-light. There was piles of clothes on the dining table, and the vacuum was standing next to it, the cord plugged in.
I swung around to Ana who was standing with her face in her hands, Emma’s arm around her shoulder.
“Ana, what the hell has happened?” I moved quickly and pulled them both into a group hug, wanting to cry as I heard my friend’s muffled sobs. “It’s okay, we’re here to help you.”
“You shouldn’t have come. You weren’t supposed to find out.”
Pulling away from her, I cupped her head and forced her to look at me. “What’s going on?”
Behind us, Susan stirred, and Ana held her breath, only letting it go once her mum settled again.
“How long has she been like this?” Emma asked.
Ana drew in a shaky breath, swiping at tears on her cheeks. “Since Dad left.”
