I mean for it to be directed at Coraline, but Kavya speaks up instead. “I didn’t mean for anybody to get hurt. Bob found me after I posted that video, and right away I knew they were mer too. I was worried about you, Ross. I could see the way you looked at Sean; I knew you felt something. I’m good at this, I know these things. I just didn’t know if what you felt was so strong that you’d stay.”

“And what if it was? Drop doesn’t get to decide for me how I’m going to spend my Journey. Neither do you.”

“I know,” Kavya says. “And I wanted you and Sean to have fun together, I really did. But you were moving so fast that I worried you might be moving past just the fun stage. Sean’s eyes had that look in them after that night at the observatory, the same look he had after he and Dominic”—her eyes dart to her mom and she cringes, and I’m thankful to her for just the briefest second that she’s not talking about my sex life in front of her—“you know. It wasn’t just you I was worried about. It was him too. I couldn’t see him get hurt, but after that moment at the swim meet where you fought Dominic over Sean, I knew I had to act. I texted Bob. They didn’t want to come at first. They wanted to let you see your Journey out, but I promised I wouldn’t ask them to see you unless it was an emergency. And that’s what this is, Ross. I don’t think you understand what’s at stake here.”

“So you planned all along for Sean to find me and Drop in the tub together?” I’m so angry that my hands curl into fists, my fingernails leaving tiny half moons on my palms. “Some best friend you are.”

Kavya shakes her head hard, the lifeguard whistle around her neck swinging back and forth. “You two scaled? Bob told me you two flirted and stuff, but I didn’t mean for you to go all the way right in front of Sean!”

“We didn’t scale!” I rush to clarify. “Well, maybe that’s what I thought we would do, but the second we were in the tub together I knew it wasn’t right.”