As awful as this was, as much as I hated what I knew I was about to hear, I had to make up for what I’d done last year. This time, I was going to be supportive. I was going to be happy for Brooke. I was going to have her back in this. Even if it made my insides rot. I just had to make it through this phone call, then I could cry as much as I needed to.

As soon as she picked up the phone, Brooke started babbling. “Okay, so, Ray came over and we were working on the essay and it was all casual and fine and then Mom and Dad invited her to stay for dinner, so she did, and they got along super well and she was being really nice and she’s actually really funny which I was not expecting, then we hung out for a while after and we were looking at something on my phone and she, holy shit, Darcy, she asked me out.”

I’d braced, I’d braced, I’d braced, but I still stumbled. Gut shot. She mistook my gasp for a gasp of joy. “I know,” she said. “And I said yes! We got along weirdly well outside of school, and it was really sweet and generous of her to help me with my essay, don’t you think? And then she said she’s been into me for ages now, and she always catches herself staring at me in Q and Q Club and council meetings, and have you noticed her staring at me? Because I never did, and now I’m wondering if I’m just oblivious, or what.”

Talk. Speak. “Um, I’m not sure.” Speak happier than that. “But wow, that’s incredible!”

“You think so? I think it might be! I didn’t see this coming, I mean, Ray. I thought she hated me. Darcy, hanging out with her was nice, can you imagine?”

Oh, I could imagine. I didn’t want to, but I could, and, oh god, now it was burned into my brain and I couldn’t stop thinking about them laughing and touching fingertips and sitting in each other’s personal space. How could this happen? With Raina? Of all the people I could’ve seen as a threat … “Are you, like, together now?”

“Don’t jinx it. I don’t know what’s going to happen now, I just needed to tell you.”

Okay. Well, they weren’t together.

But who knew how long it would stay that way for?

So I swallowed the sob that lurked somewhere in my throat, took a deep breath, and forced a smile. “Where are you guys going?”

All I knew was if they fizzled out, it wasn’t going to be because of me.

Not this time.