“Hey!” I snap. “You may remember that people are circulating nude photos of my mother around town and saying that it’s me, making kissy faces at me when I walk down the street—okay? And this jet-setter life of mine that you’re painting in your mind has been gossiped about and criticized at Beauty High since the day I walked through the doors. So don’t make it sound like I’ve had the red carpet rolled out for me.”

“And don’t make it sound like you haven’t had anyone to help you fix that. Because both me and my family are now shouldering the load for you.”

“Didn’t ask you to. Have said a million times that I will turn myself in.”

“If you do, I’ll never forgive you.”

Breath comes faster through my nostrils.

He wants honesty from me? Fine. Let’s do this.

“Is that why you did it?” I ask.

“Did what?”

“Is that why you took the fall for me? For the department store window? Because you’re scared my mom’s going to take me away again, and you’re trying to keep me here?”

Surprise widens his eyes—just for a moment. It’s quickly replaced by anger.

“I did it for a lot of reasons.”

“Oh really?”

“Really.”

“Name one,” I challenge.

“Okay, fine. You want to know one reason why?”

“Yes.”

“One reason I did it is because what happened at the party that night was shitty, and you were upset, and that made me upset, and Adrian Summer is obviously a complete asshole, so, yeah. It was unfair that you were going to get dragged through the mud for a stupid window that his dad can afford to replace a million times over. So I thought, what did it matter if I got dirty? Because unlike you, I actually do deserve to get punished. I’m not good. I’m a scarred-up monster who nearly got his little cousin killed because I wasn’t watching her when I should’ve been, so what does it matter? That’s one reason why I did it,” he says, his face a rocky cliff being thrashed by a sea of dark emotions. “Because I deserve it.”

I blink.

The red safelight glows above our heads in the cramped darkroom, but the light inside my head is clear and bright: Lucky hasn’t gotten over the fire at the lake house. The rumors. The bad reputation. The sullen attitude. The detention. I watch the turbulent emotions swirling around his face until they change into something else that I can’t quite identify.

“I should go,” he says in a rough voice, eyes on the floor, trying to move around me.

I block the door with my body.

He looks shocked.

I’m surprised, myself.