Grabbing Ryan’s elbow, I tugged him into the little hallway where the bathrooms and water fountains were. “I understand that this isn’t easy for you,” I said once we were out of sight. “It isn’t easy for me, either, and if you’d like a list of all the reasons why, I could make that for you. With annotations.”

Ryan flicked a glance at the ceiling that wasn’t quite an eye roll, but it was pretty close. Still, I kept going, tightening my fingers in the crook of his elbow. “You can’t not tell me things, Ry. This whole... thing. None of it will work if we’re not honest with each other.”

Ryan looked down at me, his auburn brows raised. “Really? You wanna play that card when we’ve been lying to David about his visions since day one?”

I shook my head. “That’s different. That’s for his own safety.”

Ryan blew out a deep breath. “You can keep saying that, Harper, but we can’t keep lying to him. This Alexander guy is already promising David he can help him, but he doesn’t need help. He couldn’t have strong visions because we kept him from having them.”

He reached out and covered my hand still resting on his arm with his own, his fingers curling around mine and squeezing. “We have to tell David the truth.”

“Tell David the truth about what?”

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

MARY BETH stood there, arms folded, mouth pressed into a tight line. As much as I hated myself for it, the words “This is not what it looks like” actually came out of my mouth, and from the way Ryan’s eyes practically turned into hazel lasers, I could tell that he hated me for saying it, too.

I won’t get into the details of all that happened next. Have you ever seen teenagers fight embarrassingly in public? It basically went like that. There was yelling and tears and Ryan trying to hug her while she yelled things like, “Don’t touch me!”

Honestly, I tried to leave, but they were both blocking the entrance to the hallway, so in the end, I just stood there by the water fountains, wanting to die of humiliation. I mean, people were looking at us. Lots of people. And if Mary Beth hadn’t finally ripped off her necklace, thrown it at Ryan’s feet, and stormed off, I think a mall cop would’ve shown up, and then I would have had no choice but to change my name and leave town—heck, leave Alabama—forever.

Ryan didn’t try to follow her this time. I guess once someone has thrown jewelry at your face and hollered about forgetting you exist, you sort of figure that ship has sailed. Instead, he squatted down and picked up the necklace, then stayed there, the chain dangling from his fingers, thumbs pressed against his eyebrows.