“Oh, you didn’t know? He comes by, they do their whole Romeo and Juliet routine, then he pretends to leave. Then he comes back and climbs up your trellis to her balcony. And then they go at it. I don’t, like, sit there and watch the whole time, but that’s what’s happening. Right under your noses. So I’m not the only one.”

Everyone is a liar, I decide. Everyone does what they want and doesn’t care who gets hurt in the process. I am so tired of being the only one living on a moral high ground. It’s really damn lonely up here.

“You want to walk home together?” I ask Lizzy.

“Sure,” she says, and nods.

The conversation flows without a single awkward silence as we make the downhill trek back to our houses. I had no idea how good it would feel to talk to someone from school in person. And with Lizzy, there’s none of the baggage that comes with other relationships. I don’t feel the guilt that I feel when I talk to Gideon—like I’m going behind my sister’s back. And I don’t feel like I’m second fiddle—like I do sometimes when I talk to Gabs.

We pick up our pace when Lizzy tells me that she’s in counseling to help her mourn Andrew. I’m not sure why, but I tell her about my crush on Gideon and how hard it was when I found out he was dating my sister. We both confess that we cried when prom got canceled and that we already had our dresses hanging in our closets, waiting to be worn. But that, of course, she couldn’t picture going to prom with anyone other than Andrew. I don’t tell her that there was a time when he was supposed to be my prom date. Just as the conversation starts to feel too heavy, we both start laughing when we agree that the hottest guy at our school, hands down, is Mr. Dennery.

“You want to do this tomorrow?” Lizzy asks once we arrive home.

“Yes, I’d love to.”

We wave goodbye, and I run up my driveway with a pep in my step that I haven’t had in months. It felt so nice to talk to someone who doesn’t have the same context for me as everyone else. Maybe I don’t need Harvard to reinvent myself after all. I’m actually excited to share some good news with Bonnie in our therapy session this afternoon, along with the major setback from earlier today. Maybe, for once, I won’t even have to fill the whole hour with lies.

GABRIELA