“I was attempting to write in to Ask Me Anything,” Hannah said, her sobs finally ebbing. I gasped as she continued. “Was going to ask how to finally tell my mom I was on the pill and how I’m about to turn eighteen and I just didn’t want to hide it anymore.” She sniffed. “But I didn’t hear her walk in or when she read over my shoulder. Honestly, she flipped out about the blog for longer than the birth control.”

“Oh no.” My voice was a whisper.

Me. My blog. That was the cause of my best friend’s pain.

“Right? I tried to talk to her, but she was livid…” Her voice trailed off as she succumbed to a fit of sniffles. “She acts all progressive, but then she totally flipped,” she finally continued. “So, I’m grounded. For life. She’ll prob take my phone soon.” She sighed. “Can you call Jake for me? Tell him I’m sorry. Tell him—”

“I will,” I said. “But he doesn’t blame you. You know he doesn’t.”

“I know. I’m just mortified. I can’t believe she was so mad at me. You think she’d be happy I was being safe.” She groaned. “Sorry to put all this on you.”

“It’s what I’m here for.” Guilt churned in my gut. “It’ll be okay, Hannah. It will. Graduation isn’t that far off and then everything will change. She’ll calm down. Just hang in there.” I had to pray that she would come around. See that Hannah and Jake were being so smart. Still, it didn’t stop the acid in my stomach from whirling, from sucking at the bottom of my heart, screaming that this was all my fault.

“Right.” She sniffed again. “See you at school tomorrow. Unless I’m grounded from that, too.”

“Love you,” I said, and I hoped she knew I meant it. Even if she didn’t know that I was behind the blog that led to this, I wanted her to feel how sorry I was.

“Love.” She hung up, and I stared at my cell for a few seconds before glancing at Dean, who stood next to me, both our bags over his shoulder.

“Are we going to her house?” he asked.

I shook my head, recounting the conversation to him.

“Damn,” he said. “That blog is everywhere. Sucks that she got caught writing in to it.”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “And her mom’s reaction over it?” I bit my lip. “Like…the blog is there to help people, not hurt them. Not turn them toward doing bad things. It’s so people don’t feel alone.”

Dean cocked a brow at me, setting our bags down on the table, seeing I wasn’t ready to leave. “But it doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous,” he said, and I snapped my eyes to his.

“What?”