“Well, next time, if you don’t think there’s any point, don’t come. I didn’t force you, you know. But you said you’d be here, so I was relying on that.”

Okay, no. Not fair. “Well, blackmailing someone in the first place makes them feel pretty forced into whatever you ask them to do, even if you say they can say no.”

A frown creased the top of his nose and his mouth dropped open. “What are you on about?”

“… You blackmailed me.”

“I did not!”

“You did! You said, ‘Oh, I’d hate to tell everyone in the school who you are.’” I helpfully mimicked his accent to jog his memory.

“You’re twisting my words. I said I figured you wanted to keep it private. As in, don’t worry, I’m not gonna go around telling everybody you’re working with me!”

I paused, suddenly as baffled as he looked. Was that … no, that’s not what he’d meant. Was it? He’d said … the vibe of what he’d said, anyway, had been … but then, he hadn’t threatened me since. Even slyly.

“I thought you got shitty at me out of nowhere,” Brougham added, linking his hands behind his neck and shaking his head.

“Well, yes, I thought you were threatening me.”

Brougham dragged his fingers over his mouth and jaw. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that.”

I didn’t know what to think anymore. My head hurt. Suddenly I wasn’t sure how much of my behavior toward him had been unwarranted. My cheeks flushed at the realization. “I guess it was just a misunderstanding,” I said softly.

We fell into silence while I tried to replay our interactions in my head to sort through it all. “I’m sorry I was checked out today,” I said. “I guess I was sort of resentful because I did feel forced, and then everything fell apart, and—” I broke off as a warning lump appeared in my throat.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” His voice was surprisingly gentle, given that he had every right to be annoyed at me.

I flapped a dismissive hand. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. Just … it’s been a hard day. I’m sorry.”

While I took some deep breaths to collect myself, Brough- am kept his eyes locked on me. “Yeah, my day wasn’t in my top five, either. I think I’ll head home. I’m sick of it here.”

The thing is, I wasn’t sure I believed him. If I was right about Brougham having an anxious attachment style, then when he shut down, he actually wanted someone to urge him to open back up. If he pushed people away, it’s because he wanted to be approached.