I found Katie and Layton in the north hallway, having words. I kept my distance, trying to stay out of sight. I was too far away to hear what they were saying—but I could clock their tone of voice. Katie was not happy, and Layton was trying to calm her. That was their pattern. He would make some dick move, or say something cruel, Katie would get angry, and then Layton would flip like a coin, becoming all apologies and charm. He wore her down as he always did, until she stopped talking, and just started nodding. His superpower was the ability to turn girls into bobbleheads. Nod and agree. Nod and agree. As long as it got him to shut up.

That’s when Katie saw me at the far end of the hall, and her glance made Layton turn my way as well. I strode off pretending I was just passing by, but I knew I hadn’t sold it.

There’s one more great fallacy of life I learned that day. What goes around comes around.

That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Everyone getting what they deserve? But more often than not, what goes around just keeps going around again and again and again, kicking you in the head each and every time.

Just as school was letting out, I got a call from Leo. I figured he was calling to update me on any progress he was making in recruiting friends for the dance. But like I said, his world and my world were different places.

“This is my one call,” he said flatly.

“Why one?” I asked.

“Because that’s all they give you.”

And when I was too dense to figure it out, he had to tell me that he’d been arrested. He didn’t call his mom or his dad, because he knew they’d be heartbroken. He didn’t call Cerise, because he didn’t want her to know. He didn’t call any of the friends he had before I so rudely inserted myself into his alternate life. He called me.

I was supposed to have a final training session with Teddy, and although that might have served Leo better in the long run, I had to go to him. I brought all the money I could dig up from various hiding places around the house, as well as a fake ID, because if you were over eighteen, you were allowed to post bail. Rich me had multiple fake IDs, so they’d never know I was still seventeen. Leo, on the other hand, was a true eighteen, having had his birthday in August—making him an adult in the eyes of the criminal justice system.