“You shouldn’t like them,” the little girl told me, “because they’re ugly.”

“Okay, thanks, got it,” I replied through clenched teeth.

“Get lost, Lullaby League,” Abi said, sauntering up, and the little girl stuck her tongue out at us before heading down the aisle toward the front of the stage.

Abi’s gaze slid over me. She was wearing a simple black dress, since her talent was playing the piano. Looking at her, I wished I hadn’t begged my mom to let me quit lessons when I was twelve, because piano seemed like a totally unembarrassing talent. A thin gold chain winked around her neck, and when Abi noticed me looking, she grinned, lifting the necklace up. “Isn’t it pretty? It’s from Spencer.”

That name made me want to shudder—a reminder that we might have been wrong about David’s visions, that we couldn’t change the future. And if that was true, what was the point of all of this?

Abi misread my expression, clearly, because she scowled at me, letting the necklace drop back to her chest. “Okay, Harper, enough with the judge-y face. Just because you’re boyfriend-less for the first time in, like, ever, it doesn’t mean you can’t be happy for other people.”

“I am,” I said, and the words might have been convincing had I not seen Bee walk in. She was practically running—worrying about being late, I guess—and while it’s not like she was wearing a sign that said, “I was making out with Ryan!” I couldn’t help but remember them locked together in the closet. She looked... suspiciously glowy.

Abi glanced over at Bee, and when her gaze swung back to me, both eyebrows were lifted. “Where were you at lunch today?” she asked.

I’d hid out in the library like a weirdo because I hadn’t wanted to face Bee or Ryan yet. I’d thought about hiding in the temporary newspaper lab, but when I’d walked past, David had been in there with Chie and Michael. As I’d sat on the floor in the back stacks of the library, I’d reminded myself that a few months ago, I would’ve died before being one of those people who hid during lunch. Lunch was primo socializing time, after all, but with Bee and Ryan being... Bee and Ryan, and me and David being not Me and David, I hadn’t known what else to do.

It was an icky feeling.