He greets us at the foot of the stairs, his cocky grin on full display. “Yeah, so listen, Ally. I really don’t like it when others take attention from me. And you created some huge national news story that has distracted people from the fact that I got a B-minus on my trig exam. That’s right, B-minus.” He pats himself on the back.

Same old Rob.

And I couldn’t be more grateful for it.

The Gleason cousins are gathered around the table, eating pizza, and gossiping like the rug isn’t about to be pulled from under us. This is what I want. For things to be normal. To not be the center of attention. To hear the family bickering and to understand the inside jokes.

The only person acting different is Neil. He’s sitting on the other side of the table, quiet. He picks at his pizza and refuses to look at me.

Can’t say I blame him.

“Oh God, can you just get over the fact that I can dance better than you?” Jan says to Rob.

“Have you seen my moves?” Rob gets up and starts to do something that I think is supposed to be the robot but honestly looks like a seizure. “They better reserve a section of the dance floor at prom for me. Nobody can get near my moves.”

“That’s because nobody wants to lose an eye,” Marian says as she tries to take cover from his flailing limbs.

“Aw, man, prom is going—” Rob stops his dancing as he looks over at me. “Oh, nothing. Never mind.”

The room gets quiet when everybody realizes I won’t be here for prom. Or graduation. For most of high school, we talked about the big moments of senior year. I’m going to miss them all.

Rob clears his throat. “But for real, I think I should enter one of those dancing reality shows.”

The room erupts into laughter and taunts at Rob, who gives me a little nod.

Neil leaves the table to get more soda.

I need to make things right between us before I leave.

I follow him to the refrigerator. “Hey,” I say.

“Oh, hey.” He gives me a shy smile. “I’d ask how you’re doing but …”

“Yeah. This is nice, though. Sorry I haven’t returned any of your messages.”

He shrugs. “I get it. But it sucks that you have to go away.”

“I know. I don’t want to.”

“Yeah …”

There’s that awkwardness that we didn’t used to have before. I did that. I ruined everything.

“And I’m also sorry for …” Is he going to make me say it in front of everybody? I wonder if they even know about our little tryst the other day.