“Prince Charles never loved her. I think he just married her because she was pretty and his mom said he had to get married. He cheated on her with that woman he married…”

“Camilla,” Scarlett said.

“Right, so she made her whole life about charity because she knew she would never be happy. So she made everyone else happy.”

“Oh. Right.”

Marlene played with the book a bit, opening it a bit wider until the spine creaked.

“When I was sick,” Marlene went on, “I could always tell the people who really wanted to be there visiting us, or giving us stuff, and the people who didn’t. A lot of celebrities do it just to get their picture taken. They’re nice and all, but you can tell they only want to get it over with. The ones who mean it, you can always tell. I think she really meant it.” With that, she slammed the book shut and set it aside.

“I have to go. We’re going to a Yankees game. They’re letting us catch balls with the players before it starts. What are you doing tonight…nothing?”

“Homework,” Scarlett said rigidly. She held out her very heavy bag to prove her point. It was important to remind Marlene that she was older and a sophomore at a very hard school and at least try to give the impression that she had a lot to do, at all times. Otherwise, Marlene would quickly get out of control. If she was making these kinds of remarks at eleven, she would only get more dangerous as time went on.

Of course, when Scarlett got back to her room, she dropped the heavy bag to the floor and promptly ignored it in favor of getting out her computer and checking to make sure Eric hadn’t sent her a message, and to generally track his whereabouts online. There was no message, though. She pushed the computer aside. Dakota was right. She was going to drive everyone away from her if she couldn’t find a way to stop. Of course, that sounded good on paper. It sounded like something you should just be able to do—just not care anymore. Just forget.

Still, there was something in Dakota’s manner today that Scarlett had never seen before, and it alarmed her. She had pressed her friends a bit too far. She quickly texted Dakota an apology, and a response of forgiveness came right back. No major damage there.