“What’s going on?” Ryan sat, stiff and awkward and uncertain, like he hadn’t been knitted inside my body. He was part of me, and I part of him. Didn’t he realize that?

Tonight he wasn’t the careless teenager whose shoulders slumped casually and whose eyes held a dull gaze, as if he were perpetually just waking up.

“I need to ask you something, and I need you to be honest with me.” I searched for affirmation in his pale blue eyes. They weren’t Grant’s eyes, or my eyes either. I could only assume they belonged to his sperm donor.

“Okaaaay.” The elongated word meant he was scared. I could only imagine the thoughts racing through his head. I needed to get this over with.

“I want to know what happened Sunday night—with Aria in the basement. Tell me everything, and be honest. Because I already have an idea of what happened, but I need to hear it from you first.”

There. It was out. My shoulders stiffened. I prepared myself for whatever came next.

“So you know.” He shifted away from me, head hanging. Shame? Fear? I couldn’t read him.

“No, Ryan, I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you to tell me what happened from your perspective.” I grabbed his chin, forcing him to look me in the eyes. “I want to know exactly what you did, what Aria did—every detail. Even if you did something wrong, I need to know so I can protect you.”

He nudged my hand away and it fell on his knee. I needed that physical connection, because he needed it too.

“I . . . I . . . I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Please, honey, whatever happened, we can deal with it together. But if you try to keep it a secret from me, it’s only going to get worse.”

He sighed. “Me, Willow, and Aria were all hanging out, until Aria wanted to try some wine. So we told Willow to leave, you know, so she wouldn’t see us drinking and tell on us. Anyway, I drank more than I should have. Aria did too. We were both feeling pretty buzzed and we ended up kissing.”

“So you were drinking alcohol?”

He nodded.

I shook my head. “I don’t expect you to be perfect, but you should know better than that, Ry.”

“I didn’t even want wine. Aria just wanted to try it. We were only having some fun.”

“Yeah, and look where that got you. Anyway, continue. What happened after you kissed?”