I sit up straight, alert, and squint around. Most people in the crowd are still watching the dancers, but then I see Sean holding up his phone, whispering furiously to the girl sitting next to him, who shakes her head. Then they both look straight at me. The hairs on my arms stand up. They’re all looking at me—practically everyone in our group. It’s dark here in the stands, but I swear I can see the disbelief in their expressions.

Cyrus turns around and frowns. “What’s going on?” he whispers to me.

I shake my head, my stomach tightening.

And that’s when I spot the photo displayed on Sean’s phone, right as he flips it over to show it to someone else. A violent buzzing fills my skull, as if a swarm of wasps have suddenly rushed in through my ears.

It’s me.

It’s me, but not how I would ever want to be seen. Me with bright, bright red lipstick and heavy blue eyeliner and cheap tassels draped over my skin. That nightmare of a photo shoot, the very thing I had confided to Cyrus less than an hour ago. It makes my aunt’s comment about me at the wedding seem almost generous. Ignorant foreigner. Because who else would agree to a photo shoot like that? I hate that girl, hate that photo, and it should’ve stayed buried in the past, but it’s here again, haunting me. Of course. No matter how hard I run, I can never escape the versions of myself I used to be.

But that doesn’t explain how people found those photos of me, unless—

As if in tune with the dread roiling through me, the music in the background changes, the string instruments shrieking, the drums clapping louder.

I jerk away from Cyrus. “Did you tell them?” I whisper.

“What?” His eyes are wide, but I don’t know if it’s from confusion or guilt. If it’s only an act.

“The photo shoot,” I say, my voice trembling. Even my hands are shaking, the stands swaying beneath me, everything cracking apart. There’s nothing for me to hold on to, nothing to steady my heart against. I want to vomit. “You—you’re the only person I told.”

“Of course I didn’t,” he says quickly. “You know I wouldn’t.”