She still didn’t look at him, but her lips were moving. Like she was talking to herself.

“All right, fine.” Mateo wiped the sweat gathering under his cap with the hem of his old Birnam Academy district championships T-shirt and picked up his pace, ignoring the pain in his ankle with each step.

He caught up with Lily on the fourth floor. She was leaning down to look out the dormer window at the top of the stairs. Her hair was out of its usual braid. The frizz of curls around her face and the dirty sweatshirt she was wearing made her look so different from the Lily he knew that Mateo wondered for a second if he’d mistaken someone else for her.

Then he heard her voice. She was whispering so low he could barely make out the words.

“You’re being hysterical,” Lily whispered. With her Southern accent, the sounds came out slow and thick. “No one will know we had anything to do with it.”

“Lily?” Mateo kept his voice low too. He didn’t want to startle her, not when she was leaning that far out the wide-open window.

Wait. That was strange. That window was always kept locked since—since Delilah.

“She doesn’t deserve your pity.” Lily was still whispering, like she hadn’t heard Mateo this time either. “Come straight back when you’re done. I’ll wait up.”

Mateo stepped forward and put his hand on her shoulder. “Lily?”

Lily leaned forward. Too far forward.

He leaped toward her, grabbing her by the shoulders and wrenching her back inside. He expected her to resist, but she didn’t, and he wound up pulling too hard. They both fell backward onto the hard wood landing.

Lily’s face screwed up with pain, but she didn’t make a sound. Something rolled out of her pocket.

“Sorry, sorry.” Mateo stood and reached for Lily’s hand to help her up. To his surprise, she took it, bracing herself on the wall with her other arm and climbing to her feet. He gathered up her crutches from where they’d fallen and passed them to her. She took them, but her eyes looked faraway.

“What the hell were you doing at that window?” he asked her. “How did you even get it open?”

“I’m sorry,” Lily whispered. She stared up at him with those cold blue eyes of hers. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“What are you doing up here, anyway?”

Lily’s eyes were fixed on a point on the floor. Mateo followed her gaze and saw the thing that had fallen out of her pocket. It looked like a plastic toy. He bent to pick it up. Something wet rubbed off it onto his fingers. He wiped his hand on his T-shirt, leaving a red stain behind.