“When your fiancé posts photos of her ring on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, it’s kind of a dead giveaway.”

There was a moment of silence before his audible sigh made the phone crackle and hiss. “I didn’t want you to find out like that. I’ve been trying to call and message you.”

I kept quiet. I didn’t know what to say to him. I felt voiceless, like Vicki had said. What I really wanted to say was how much he’d hurt me when he said I couldn’t stay with him. I wanted to tell him how hurt and abandoned—and now, replaced—I felt. But I didn’t.

“I’ve got to go. School,” I said quickly.

“Okay. I love you, Lori.” It sounded like a plea, not a statement.

“Sure, me too.” I hung up, slipped the phone into my bag, and raced to school. But when I got there, Amber walked straight up to me.

“Hey, L,” she said in this soft, singsong voice.

I blinked a few times. No one had ever called me L; my name was short enough already. Besides, that L had a distinctly passive-aggressive tone to it. Or maybe it was just aggressive—there didn’t seem to be anything passive about the way she was staring at me now.

“What?” I asked, suspiciously.

“So, how’s life at BWH?” Her pseudosweet tone laced with invisible daggers told me I should probably run away rather than stay here and listen to what she was about to say.

“It’s okay.”

“Making friends? Meeting new people?”

“I guess.”

She sighed and then stopped walking. “So just a word of advice, as a friend—”

“I didn’t know we were friends?”

“Well, you know what I mean.”

I felt like shouting in her face that I had no idea what she meant, but didn’t.

“Mmm-hmmm?” I mumbled.

“Thing is with Jake—” she started.

“Jake! Why are we talking about him? What does he have to do with—” I wanted to slap myself for saying that. It had come out strange and emotional and sideways, and her smiling at me now was confirmation that she’d gotten the exact reaction out of me that she’d wanted to get.

“It’s just, I can see how you feel about him.” Her eyes zoned in on mine, and I swear, she was trying to see right into my brain.

I looked away quickly, in case she did possess some supernatural witchy powers.

“We’re just friends. No, our siblings are friends!”