I might have brought this on myself, but it doesn’t make me any less hurt and angry at her. She didn’t have to punish me more. I’ve been punished enough.

When I look away, I notice Molly’s eyes drifting between Rose and me. Back and forth. I tune back in to the king’s speech right as it wraps up.

“I won’t keep you any longer. Please, continue to enjoy your night. Thank you.”

The crowd bursts into applause, then floods to return to what they were doing. I stand straight up. “I’m going to the bathroom,” I choke out to Molly before escaping.

I make it all the way through the crowd, past the edges of the room, and to the hall where the bathroom entrance is. Right before I go in, though, someone grabs my arm and stops me. Molly followed me, it turns out. “Hold on,” she says. “I think we should talk, and we won’t get any privacy in there.”

She leads me to a spot by the wall, near a tall vase of pink orchids and peonies. There’s no one close enough to eavesdrop here, and it’s loud enough that our voices won’t travel.

“Look,” she says. “I just want to know, in case I can help. Why are you and Rosemary not friends anymore? What went down?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” I say.

“Really? Because you look like you’re about to cry.”

I’m about ten seconds from crying, yeah. “I’m always about to cry,” I say. “I told you, I’m stressed.”

“Even at the end of a three-week holiday?”

“Yes.”

She doesn’t look convinced. I don’t blame her. I didn’t have enough notice to prepare a good cover story here, and I’m a bad enough liar even when I am prepared. “Rose was looking at you really strangely,” she says.

“Was she?”

“And you were looking at her the same way.”

I wave a hand. “Just listening to the speech.”

“I had some weird comments on that post you asked me to put up of you.”

“People on the internet can be weird.”

“There’s a couple of people who were convinced you and Rose were…”

“Someone thought the same about you, once,” I spit out, way too defensively. “I saw it on a forum somewhere. They thought you and Rose were dating.”

Molly blinks. “What? Where?”

“I know you and Rose never dated,” I say quickly. “But that’s my point. It’s funny what people will come up with, isn’t it?”

“Uh-huh,” Molly says flatly. She checks for potential eavesdroppers, then meets my eyes. “And what about you and Rose?”

“What about us?” I ask weakly.

Molly keeps her eyes locked on me. “You can tell me to piss off if you want,” she says. “I know I’m crossing a major boundary right now, and it’s none of my business.”