“Just do it, for Christ’s sake,” Dee laughs.

So I do.

The rock on my bare back is uncomfortable at first, so I put my T-shirt under me. A shiver runs across my body, and I feel like I might be having an embarrassment-induced heart attack, but I try to relax. And then I actually do. Dee keeps her eyes closed against the sun, which is warm and inviting. “Feel good?” she asks me, and I tell her the jury is still out on it, and she chuckles. I look over at her and try to soak up some of her ability to lay back and chill. We stay like this for a while, listening to the water lapping against the rocks, and to the sounds of voices and dogs around the waterfront paths. Then I hear a kid ask, “Is she bare naked?” and turn to see him pointing at me to his mom, who shushes him and pulls him away, and I giggle, and so does Dee.

“So: what do you think of our town?” I ask her.

“It’s got that innocent-until-proven-guilty thing going for it.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I mean, it seems quaint, but it’s actually crawling with terrible people.”

I laugh and cross my hands over my chest self-consciously. I roll over and look at Dee. “Like who?”

She turns her head to me and opens her eyes. “Like who? Like those people at school who are all over your ass, even though you act like it’s nothing. Paige, Aidan, Luke and Breanne, and the rest of the fucking assholes who run it like some kind of Orange Is the New Black version of high school. And even what’s-her-name, Lottie. Wasn’t she your best friend? What got up her ass? How could you let her treat you like that?”

I don’t know. I blink away tears that came fast to my eyes and say nothing, sitting up to put on my T-shirt again.

Dee scoffs. “And the teachers are no better. There’s all this ‘zero-tolerance’ bullshit, but half the time they haven’t got a clue what is going on, and they turn a blind eye the other half. And sometimes they’re the bullies.”

“I should get going,” I say, because suddenly the clouds are filling up the sky and I don’t want to talk anymore. Dee sits up and pulls her own shirt on.

“And what about your mom?” she asks, scrambling up with me.

I turn to Dee sharply. “What about her?”

“You tell me. Seems like she forgot about you.” Her eyes are holding mine, and I can feel myself about to full-on cry.

I start climbing up toward the pathway, and Dee grabs my shoulder. “Hey,” she says, gently, then takes her hand off me and smiles. “I just want to say, I—I’m here. I’ve got your back.”

“What the hell does that mean?”