“Tabatha—” I had no idea what I was about to say, but then the words were just coming out. I was shocking myself right alongside Tabatha. “You told me that I didn’t know how to have friends. You’re right. You were right. With me, it was either family or not. But you became a friend. I have no clue how that happened. Sometimes I want to wring your neck because you’re a snob. You’re stuck-up. You can be a colossal bitch.”

“Look who’s talking!”

I spoke, ignoring her, “But Jordan fell in love with you, and somewhere along the line, I started liking you, too.” We had our hiccups, but there it was. I did like Tabatha. “I didn’t know what I was going to do when I came here today. Jordan didn’t tell us why you guys broke up until last night.”

“What?” Her lips parted. “Are you serious?”

I nodded. “We’ve been in this weird—anyway. It doesn’t matter. When I went to bed, I wanted to come here and rip you apart. I brought Hawk—”

“Her name is Hawk? Are you serious about that?” She was trying to keep from laughing.

I scowled. “I can call her back, if you’d like. You can laugh at her name right to her face. See how that goes for you.”

Her laughter vanished. She coughed, straightening up in her chair. “Right. Back to, uh, me and Jordan.”

“Blaise never said anything, but,” I had to relent something, “there was a look he gave Cross.”

“A look?” A look. Got Cross thinking, going over what Blaise hadn’t said, so he technically never said a thing.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Her spark was gone again, the dull, dead look washing back in its place. She seemed to go pale before my eyes. “I can’t say anything. This is pointless.”

“Hey!” I didn’t like that. “I’m here. I’m not pointless.”

Tabatha’s eyebrows pinched together. Her forehead wrinkled. Her mouth turned down. “There’s nothing you can do. This has nothing to do with any of this and everything to do with my parents. It’s that type of shit.”

“Like what?” What could possibly be that bad for her to make out with a guy and end it with Jordan? “What? Does your dad owe Harper’s dad or something—”

No…

I clocked her reaction. She full-on twitched, jerking in her chair. If she’d been pale before, she was a ghost this time.

Oh no.

“Are you serious?” My mind was spinning. This was bad, so bad. “I was just throwing out guesses. I never—” Damn. Damn! “Holy shit, Tabatha.”

She jerked to her feet, coming to me fast. “You can’t say anything. My dad has no idea that I know. He has no idea about Tim.”