There’s so much relief in Rose’s eyes I want to wrap her in a hug and assure her that she’s completely safe with me, and that I’d never do anything to hurt her. She can give me a loaded gun if she wants, but I’d never pull the trigger. Not now, and not in a hypothetical future where she’s only somebody I once knew. Like she said. It’s me and her.

“Then I’ll say the same,” Rose says.

Molly gives her a sharp look. “You will?” she asks.

Rose faces her with a look that definitely would’ve shut me up right away if she’d sent it my way. Molly obviously feels the same, because she looks away and shrugs, as if to say, “Whatever, not my business.” Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Rose is a princess, someone who’s had a lifetime of bossing people around and getting her own way. This is not one of those times.

I’m not sure why, exactly, Molly’s so confused by the idea of Rose speaking to the media, but I’m so overwhelmed by what’s about to happen to me that I forget about my confusion as quickly as it hits.

“Can you guys wait outside for a minute?” Rose asks Eleanor and Molly.

As soon as we are alone Rose begins to riffle through her wardrobe.

“What are you looking for?” I ask, but she’s already got what she was after. Her school cape.

“Wear this,” she says. “And give me yours once you’ve changed.”

So, I’ll be coming out to the world, while denying I have any history with Rose, while wearing her cape, after spending the night in her bed.

And she’ll be doing the same. Minus the coming out part.

I guess she’s searching for a shred of control, too. For a tiny bit of the truth to put on display, even as we loudly lie. It doesn’t erase it, or make it better. But I guess it’s all we’ve got to cling to.

I head back down to my room to change, and by the time I’ve finished, Rose, Eleanor, and Molly are waiting for me out front, wearing their full uniforms as well. I pass Rose my cape. Mine’s in better condition than hers—I guess I grew up doing my own laundry a lot of the time while Mom worked late, and Rose came to school after a lifetime of her clothes appearing washed and pressed in her wardrobe like magic. Her cape is covered in lint and has some deep creases across the back from being left on the floor for too long.