“Then why all this drama? Come on, you said you wanted me to be honest, right? So you be honest too. Ask me.”

There were tears in Brandon’s eyes. “Did you?”

Maria leaned back. She pressed her middle finger between her eyes, the way she did when she felt a headache coming on. “No. I didn’t push anyone out a stupid window, and I can’t believe my best friend actually just asked me if I did. Look, I don’t know the first thing about what happened to Delilah, all right?”

A tear slid down Brandon’s nose. He scrubbed it away with the back of his hand. Maria was looking him straight in the eyes. She looked so much like she had in his dream last night.

Brandon hadn’t really thought she’d done anything wrong. Not until this moment. Not until she’d lied to his face.

“So she snuck away and did LSD when you weren’t watching.” He didn’t bother to hide his desperation now. This was the only theory that didn’t make him want to puke. “If it was something like that, you should still tell. You wouldn’t get in serious trouble. They’d probably thank you.”

“Yeah, I bet they’d give me, like, a medal.” Maria’s sarcasm was thick.

“I’m serious. Even if you do get in trouble, it’s worth it.”

“That wasn’t how it happened.” Maria was talking fast. “It wasn’t—she didn’t sneak away. She didn’t even mean to do it.”

“Then what did happen?”

Maria bit her lip, and her chin quivered. For a second Brandon thought she was about to start crying too. She drew in a deep breath.

Then her face smoothed out. She exhaled. When she spoke, her voice was steady.

“Someone slipped it in our drinks,” she said. “I think it was this gang of Latino guys hanging out at the back of the bar. We both got up to go to the bathroom, and when we came back I thought my drink smelled funny. I ordered a new one, but Delilah kept drinking hers. The next thing I knew she was falling all over the place.”

Brandon was so surprised he almost hit his head again. This wasn’t the story he’d been expecting.

“What about the drugs in her purse?” he said. “Why’d you flush them?”

Maria looked to Brandon’s right. He glanced over his shoulder, paranoid, but they were as alone as ever in their tiny windowless room. Maria toyed with the cross necklace at her throat before she met his eyes again.