I don't know why I'm even typing this out, it feels so DUMB and like, nobody else probly even has this problem but I just... I gotta say it somewhere. Even if it's just to the internet void. It's about my mom. And wine. Which sounds super weird when I type it but it's what's happening. So, we live out in the sticks, right? Like, a super small town, everyone knows everyone's business which SUCKS when you're a teenager and just wanna like, exist. My mom, she's a teacher, like, retired last year from the high school here. Everyone knew her, everyone LOVED her, all that stuff. And my stepdad, he's super nice, fixes stuff, works hard, kinda quiet. So it's not like, a bad house or anything. But for like, the past year, maybe more, I started noticing it. The wine. Like, a bottle here, a bottle there. And then it started being like, a bottle every night. Sometimes two. And I hear her sometimes, late at night, in the kitchen, like, clinking bottles and stuff. And then in the morning, they're gone. Just... gone. But they're not really gone, are they? Because I see them. In the recycling bin outside. Only not like, on top. She shoves them, like, way down at the BOTTOM, underneath all the plastic milk jugs and soda cans and stuff. So my stepdad won't see them when he takes the bin out on Tuesdays. He just kinda grabs it and rolls it to the curb. He never looks inside, he just THINKS it's empty from like, our normal recycling. And sometimes, I'll be taking out the trash and I'll see her, like, looking around real quick to make sure nobody's watching, and then she'll just like, DUMP a bottle in there and then put other stuff on top super fast. And it just makes me feel so WEIRD. Like, I'm complicit or something? And it's like, every single day. I don't know what to do. I can't say anything, that would be AWFUL. And she's not like, mean or anything, she's just... tired, I guess? But it’s a lot of wine. And it makes me feel like I’m in on some secret that I don’t wanna be in on.