She wiped the tears from Aileen's face with gentle fingers.

"Ally, what's wrong?"

"Can you tell me?"

I drifted nearby, listening to their conversation. The ache threaded through my bones again, sharp as needles.

Then Aileen's gaze suddenly shifted toward where I was.

She pressed her face into Mom's shoulder, her voice thick with tears:

"Mom, she's glaring at me! I'm so scared!"

I listened in silence as she sobbed about things I had never done.

Aileen's eyes brimmed with tears, her body trembling, the picture of a girl too timid to speak up.

"Mom, I'm a little cold... could I wear your jacket? I'm afraid she'll get angry. She doesn't let me wear her mother's clothes."

Mom turned immediately and went to the bedroom to get her jacket.

The room emptied to just the two of us.

Aileen glanced at me, slumped against the table. The corner of her mouth curled upward. She turned and picked up the cake from the table.

The next second, she hurled it to the floor. Because she and I shared the same birthday.

Then she lifted her foot and ground it down, hard.

That still wasn't enough.

She raised her hand and rapped her knuckles against the wall, her eyes cold and calculating as they flicked toward me. Then, with a sharp crack, she slammed her forehead into the wall.

Bright red blood streaked down from her hairline, dripping onto the floor one drop at a time.

"No! Stop!"

She screamed, crumpled to the ground, and pressed both hands tight against her forehead.

The bedroom door swung open, and Mom hurried over to Aileen. "Ally, what happened?"

Aileen kept her head down. Blood seeped slowly through the gaps between her fingers, trailing down her entire arm.

She pulled her hand away from her forehead, revealing the wound where she'd struck herself. Her voice cracked with a sob.

"Mom, I just wanted to share the cake with Eudora, but she... she told me to get lost. She threw the cake on the floor and... and pushed me."

Mom's jaw tightened instantly.

She looked down at the frosting smeared across the floor, then glanced sideways at me, curled up in the corner by the table, not saying a word.

The sliver of concern on her face dissolved into fury. She raised her voice.

"Eudora!"

"Ally was kind enough to share her birthday cake with you, and this is how you act? Who exactly are you putting on that attitude for?"

I couldn't speak.