At that, Ryan gave a sharp intake of breath. Miserable, I continued. “I know, I know. I am a terrible person. But I promise nothing happened between us until after we broke up. I mean, it was like ten minutes after we broke up, which I still don’t feel great about, but—”

“Harper.” Ryan grabbed my elbow, his fingers digging into my skin. “First off, I think Bee and I might have made a mistake about letting David go. Secondly, we have no idea where David is right now, and seeing as how it is more or less our sacred duty to protect him, that’s kind of an issue. And third, I kissed Mary Beth before we broke up.”

For a moment, all I could hear both of us breathing and the rush of blood in my ears. “You what?” I was proud of how non-shrieky I managed to sound, considering how shrieky I felt.

“I kissed her. That night at the movies.”

The same night I had almost kissed David. I had spent all these months feeling terrible about that, and the whole time, he had been making out with Mary Beth Riley? Seriously?

I jabbed my finger in the general direction of Ryan’s face. “You are so lucky we are busy right now, because if we weren’t, you and I would be having a major discussion about this.”

Ryan snorted and swatted at my hand. “Why? Didn’t you just say we should have broken up earlier?”

“Yes! That doesn’t mean it was okay for you to cheat on me.”

“You had been cheating on me way before that, Harper,” he hissed, and I gave a squawk of outrage.

But then he raised up on his knees, whipping out a pocket knife and scratching at the marks. The door gave with a creak, spilling Ryan out into the parking lot. He glanced over his shoulder at me.

“Harper?”

Outside, the wind was blowing hard, reminding me of the night we got Bee back from Alexander’s house. Just like then, there was this almost overpoweringly electric feeling in the air, racing along my nerves and making my hair stand on end.

The parking lot was full, and several car alarms were blaring. Underneath the sodium lights, Ryan’s hair was orange, his skin pale.

“This is bad,” he said, his gaze darting around.

Shooting him a glare, I bent down and grabbed my skirt in both hands, ripping the little slit in the side until the dress was open to my upper thigh. I wasn’t going to let the skinny skirt get in my way again. “Yes, Ryan, that’s been established.”