He’s so earnest. So quick to absolve me of any wrongdoing. And the last of the Voice’s control just snaps. “Don’t you see? She wanted you to eat the whole cupcake. You only took a couple of bites, and look how sick it made you! What would’ve happened if you’d finished it?”

He frowns. “Who wanted me to eat all of it? Cristela?” The lines on his face deepen. “She played a prank on me? No way. Although I wouldn’t put it past her buddy Lee. I have no idea why she puts up with him.”

I sink onto the stool, pushing the bowl aside. I’ve revealed too much. Said one thing too many. He deserves an explanation now—one I’m not allowed to give.

“It wasn’t Cristela,” I say as the numbness pours into me like concrete.

His eyes turn blank, as though he’s sliding his shields back into place. “So that’s why you’re here. You were conspiring with Lee? For what? Seriously, Alice? I thought you were better than that.”

“I am!” I shout and then scrub a hand down my face. “I mean, I don’t know. I just don’t know anything anymore.”

He laughs, and the sound is so hollow, it makes my insides twist. “Well, that’s convenient.”

A strained silence falls between us. Thirty seconds pass. And then a minute. Just when I don’t think I can take any more, he pushes himself off the stool. “You’d better leave now. I have enough people in my life who make me feel worthless. I don’t need any more.” The edge of his sweatpants brushes against my knee, and that slight touch makes me want to cry.

I finally lift my eyes to meet his.

They’re no longer blank. No longer bored. Instead, the expression I see in them is achingly familiar. It’s the same pain I saw in the mirror for weeks after my mother left.

I don’t want to be the cause of that pain. I can’t stand the thought of making anybody feel the way I felt.

He turns and strides down the hall. He’s all the way at the front door, opening it, before I can make my feet move.