“It isn’t right,” Maria said. “You aren’t supposed to do this stuff. I mean, sure, all the people at this school are huge jerks, but we’re talking a whole different level here. Everybody wants to win, but you don’t just turn around and destroy somebody’s entire life to get there. If I do this to her, what’s to stop someone else from turning around and doing it to us?”

“You’re being hysterical.” Lily had to fight to get the words out. They were supposed to be past all this by now. “No one will know we had anything to do with it.”

Maria kept going as if she hadn’t even heard. “If I do this, it’ll never be over, not really. Every day, from now until forever, I’ll wake up and know what I did.”

Maria made a choking sound.

“I’m sorry, Lily,” she whispered. “I just can’t.”

“You’re sorry?”

Lily closed her eyes and took smooth, deep breaths. She’d been a champion swimmer before the accident, and she’d learned how to keep a level head during meets, even when it didn’t look like she had a chance in hell of winning.

Maria was just being Maria. She was a born goody-goody.

But there was another side to her. The one Lily had seen Saturday night in the bathroom. The one who knew what she really wanted.

All Lily had to do was wake up that Maria.

It wasn’t even hard. All she had to do was say exactly what she was thinking. Including the things she wouldn’t normally say out loud.

Lily opened her eyes and took another smooth, deep breath.

“How exactly did you think this was going to work?” Lily said.

Maria cringed at her sharp tone. Lily was talking fast. Like what she was saying was so obvious she didn’t even need to think about it.

“Did you think the ghosts in the Ouija board would magically get rid of her for you?” Lily said. “Or maybe we should try sprinkling some fairy dust and see if that will do the trick? Christ, Maria, were you lying about wanting to come to Stanford in the first place? Are you secretly glad you’re going to lose, so you can be rid of me next year? Do you want to just go off and do your own thing at some crappy little state school?”

“Stop it.” Maria wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come. They never did. Maria couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried. “You know that’s not true.”

“Then suck it up. You promised you’d do this. Were you lying then too?”

“No, I—” When had Maria promised? She didn’t remember promising. Lily wouldn’t say that if she hadn’t, though.

“Do you even want to be with me?”

“Yes!” Maria sputtered. “You know I do. I—”