"I don't mean to pry," said Sam, sitting beside Robby on the bed her dad provided in the old dojo, "and if you don't want to talk about it, I'd understand. But, how could your mom just take off like that and leave you alone?"
She detected reflexive defensiveness in the way his brows knitted together.
"Sometimes she lets guys talk her into making bad choices," explained Robby. He didn't want to air out the complete truth, about his mother's pill and alcohol addictions, how those, more than anything, influenced her behavior. Instead, he added, "It's mostly because she's lonely."
