Here We Lie. Paula DeBoard Treick

was no such thing as a normal family, a happy family meal. Maybe everyone was secretly, deep down miserable and they only put on brave faces for the rest of us.

      More out of spite than hunger, I ate half the pizza and lay down on the bed, still dressed in my jeans and sweater in case Erin and her parents came back. I must have fallen asleep with the overhead fluorescent light still beaming down because the next thing I knew there were people running past my door, their footsteps echoing down the hallway.

      “What’s going on?” I called to a girl who stood near the elevators, a hand over her mouth.

      “Someone on the second floor took a bunch of pills,” she said. “It’s horrible.”

      “Is she...” I faltered. “Is she going to be...”