She walks out of the kitchen and leaves me there, and when I look out the window I see that even the clouds are rushing away from me, sliding across the sky with their eyes averted, pretending they have something else to do. That sky. Always thinking it’s so big.

I go to my room. I have a few more edits to do before I publish my latest vid.

*   *   *

School is strange. I still eat at lunch with Paige, Breanne, Lottie, and the rest, but something has changed. There is an invisible wall that I’m suddenly behind. I try to ignore it but feel myself start to disappear, like Marty McFly in Back to the Future.

At the end of the day, I wait for Lottie and am relieved when she turns up without Paige.

“Hey,” she says, and my heart lifts a little.

The sky is heavy, and it’s going to start coming down soon, but we don’t rush, just kind of scrape our feet along. And then, without whispering a warning, the rain starts. It’s an angry rain, a furious weather system: the sky throwing car keys and coffee cups and its mother’s favorite pearl buttons. Raindrops clatter around us like bullets. At first, we just keep walking, going slow, do your worst, and then deciding at the same moment, we run: slopping into puddles as they’re forming, blinking rain off our eyelashes. We are yelling and laughing. We are crazy wet and cold. Like little kids again. Right then, it doesn’t matter why everything feels a little different. Something about rain like this just makes you forget being mad or cool or anything else but being wet. I can ignore it all; I can pretend it’s all fine.

We go to Lottie’s house because it’s the closest, run inside, panting and laughing and shaking like wet dogs. I close the door, and we peel off our jackets and shrug out of our shoes. There is music playing from the radio in the kitchen. Water drips down my neck, and I shiver.

Pete is already at the counter cutting an onion.

“Hey girls,” he says. Lottie nods. “I saw you walking home. I would have offered you a ride, but”—twinkling eyes—“rain builds character.”

“Hey Pete,” I say.

He looks up, surprised, and looks at Lottie. She grabs a cookie out of a tin and glares at me.

“Pete, hmm?” he says. “Looks like you’ve been talking to my girl here.” He gestures to Lottie, who is still staring mutinously at me.

“Yeah, um, she told me. I hope that’s okay?”

“I assumed she would. That’s what best friends are for. In fact, I’m kind of surprised it’s taken you this long to mention it.” He looks happy, relaxed, and I feel something lift inside me. “How are you taking it? I know it takes some time to process.”