I glanced over his shoulder to make sure the others hadn’t heard him. Satisfied we were out of earshot, I smiled. “In your dreams.”

He crossed his arms, forcing my hand off his chest.

“What happened?” I asked. I had a hard time believing the blowup I’d just witnessed was really about rehearsal, and when Reg didn’t answer right away, I said so out loud.

“It’s not just the play,” he said. “It’s all the things . . . all the mortal things. Relating to teachers and being popular with the other students. He’s just so good at being human.”

“Of course he is,” I said. “They all are. It’s all they’ve ever been.”

I couldn’t see why Reg cared so much. Why did he need to be a model mortal . . . unless he wanted to remain one? And now I was the one crossing my arms, shutting out the idea.

“The good news is, this will all be over soon,” I reminded him.

He didn’t meet my eyes. “Yeah.”

“So can you just let it go?”

“Can you?” He looked up. “Let it all go?”

“What do you mean—”

“Never mind.” He circled around me, tossing a glance back at where our friends still stood outside of All Hours. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh, come on. Who understands you better than me?”

“Better than I.” He smiled, to let me know he was teasing, but a sadness lingered in his eyes. He turned and walked away, and this time I didn’t follow.

I returned to the coffee shop, where Sydney and Sophia comforted a now openly crying Poe. They tried to convince him to come into All Hours, but he waved them away, sniffling that he had to go to rehearsal, and took off in the opposite direction as Reg.

“What the hell is with your brother?” Sydney snapped.

She wasn’t wrong to ask, but her tone set off my sibling defenses. “He’s under a lot of stress, okay? You all have no idea what it’s like to . . . be us.”

“What you two have been through is awful,” Sophia chimed in, softer than her sister, “with your parents and moving here and all. But it doesn’t excuse the way he’s treating Poe. I mean, you’re both in the same situation, and you don’t act like that.”

My mouth fell open.

No one had ever accused me of being the nice one.

Dexter took a tentative step between me and the twins, as if preparing to break up another fight, but then he beamed one of his biggest smiles. “Men. Am I right?”