Age 14
Riley shouldn’t have been shocked when Kent told her they had taken Evan to the hospital. Apparently, he had thrown up and then passed out in Kent’s office. With no way to determine how much alcohol he had actually consumed, thanks to the number of broken bottles, Kent had decided the safest course of action was to get him checked out.
Penny was sitting beside the hospital bed when Riley walked into the room. Her auburn hair was piled into a messy bun, and her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. Evan lay asleep, his face slack, making him look every bit as young as he truly was.
It always amazed Riley how quickly Evan was growing, already taller and broader than most of his peers. Sometimes he looked so much like an adult that it was easy to forget he was still just a child. A boy
