“He was my best friend. For a while—before you—he was one of my only friends. I trusted him, and I loved him, and he got pissed that I wasn’t paying attention to him and he betrayed me. He took something that he knew was important to me and made sure everyone could see it. He exposed me, even though he knew it was the last thing I’d be able to stand. He broke my heart last night, Lulu.” Cass can’t keep the emotion out of her voice anymore. “And you just left. You went to hang out with Bea. You didn’t text. You didn’t call. You didn’t ask if I was okay—”

“I know.” There’s nothing Lulu can do to change it. “I know,” she says again. “I couldn’t bear to look at you, Cass. It felt like it was going to make it too real. It was selfish. That’s the truth about me: I’m a very selfish person.”

“Don’t ask me to feel sorry for you.”

“I’m not,” Lulu snarls. God, she’s angry. All of the rage she’s been suppressing comes roaring to life, and before she knows it she’s saying, “He did this to me too, you know.”

“Not like he did it to me.”

“Oh, because of your special friendship?” Lulu couldn’t let herself be angry with Ryan, not the way she wanted to be. She couldn’t let herself scream or curse, get ugly and wild. But there’s nothing and no one stopping her from dumping the fury that’s been simmering in her blood—at Ryan, but also at her stupid, stupid self—onto Cass.

“Or,” Lulu continues. “Do you mean, because I’ve already exposed myself on the internet? That it just shouldn’t bother me as much? I was always going to be damaged goods, I guess.”

“That’s not what I said. That’s not even remotely what I said.”

“What are you saying, then?”

“I’m saying that I get the sense you disappeared on Bea when you met me, but when I stopped being easy, you went back to Bea. I’m saying that I thought there was one person I could completely, totally trust, and he fucked me over, and I’m scared. I’m scared of him, and I’m scared of you too. I’m scared that I’m gonna keep falling for you, and you’re gonna abandon me when I stop being convenient.”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Exactly. You don’t do things. You let things happen to you. You waited for that Flash to break you and Owen up; you were never gonna tell me you were into girls, were you, until Kiley forced the issue—”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, and who texted first?”