“Cute skirt, but I don’t know how the hell you’re not freezing your tits off right now.”

I frowned, angling my head up and squinting through the sun to find a smirking Riley staring down at me.

I smiled, looking down at the whiskers on my lap. “Maybe it’s because I don’t have any tits to freeze off?”

Riley laughed. “Scoot over.”

I did, and Riley took the seat next to me, looping her arm through mine and instantly warming me with her body heat through the much more comfortable athletic sweats she was wearing. I gave a small sigh of content, both at the heat and at the comfort she brought.

“What are you doing sitting in the cold, weirdo?”

I chuckled. “Waiting for someone.”

“Clay?”

His name sucked the smile off my face like a vacuum. “No,” I said, swallowing. “Just a friend.”

Riley nodded, quiet for a moment before asking, “You ever going to tell me what happened between you two?”

“I would if I knew.”

She frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It means he’s back with Maliyah, but I… I just know that’s not what he actually wants.”

“How do you know?”

I let out a breath, eyeing her for a moment before I turned to face her fully, and because I knew how big of a deal they were to her, I held out my pinky. “Pinky promise you won’t tell a soul what I’m about to tell you?”

Her eyes lit up, complete seriousness washing over her as she hooked her digit around mine. “My lips are sealed.”

And with that promise, I spilled everything.

Not just the version I’d told my dad, which had been sugarcoated and left out many details, but the full story. I told her about our agreement, how it had been fake at first — to which she perked up and declared I knew it! I told her that somehow along the way, things changed. My cheeks tinged red when I admitted that I was a virgin, and how Shawn singing his stupid steamy song had made me panic and beg Clay to help me not be anymore.

Everything.

The observatory, the auction, the days and nights we’d spent wrapped up in each other.

The break.

I couldn’t fight back my tears when I told her that part, and she squeezed my hand in hers, nodding like she knew exactly what I was feeling. After what happened between her and Zeke last semester, I had no doubt she really did.

“So, like I said, I’d tell you what happened if I understood it myself, but I don’t. He just… ended it. And I don’t care what he says about being back with Maliyah, I know it’s not what he wants. I just don’t know why he’s doing this.”