Unplugging her phone and grasping it in my trembling fist, I swing open the bathroom door. Walsh jolts as she wipes her mouth with a towel, her toothbrush and open tube of toothpaste sprawled on the vanity next to the sink.

“You lied to me. Bad News Bears is Keith, isn’t it? You’re still together.”

She spots her phone and tries to snatch it from me. I hold it away from her.

“That’s none of your business.”

“Tell me.”

“Give it back.”

“Walsh,” I plead.

“Yes, it’s Keith, okay?” She grabs her phone from my slack grip. Swiping it open, she shoulders past me into the cabin as she reads the new texts. Her flushed cheeks pale. “It—it’s not what it looks like.”

I hug my arms to my chest. “Oh no? So what is it then?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“What wouldn’t I understand?”

“I’m hard to live with.”

“You don’t think I get that?”

“I—I don’t have anything going for me. I dropped out of college. I can’t keep a job or even get one now, and I’m broke. Keith… he doesn’t care about all that. He’s there for me.”

“He condescends to you. ‘Don’t talk back to me’? ‘Don’t sneak off to Seattle’? Who the hell does he think he is? He acts like he owns you. Is that how he talks to you all the time?”

Sinking onto the bed, Walsh pulls her knees up to her chest. “He doesn’t mean it. He’s not a bad guy, he just gets angry sometimes…”

Ice fills my veins. “What does he do when he gets angry?”

She turns her face away.

I sink onto the floor in front of her and grip her knees. “What did he do, Walsh?”

She lifts and lowers one shoulder. “He threw something at me. It was the first time he lost control like that. Usually, he just yells.”

“What did he throw?”

“A dinner plate. It smashed against the wall,” she mumbles.

My chest tightens and I can barely breathe. “Walsh, that is a very big deal.”

She shifts as though she’s going to stand, but I duck my face, forcing myself into her field of vision.

“Talk to me. Please. What happened?”

“I cut my hair.” A tear spills down her cheek and she dashes it away. “He doesn’t like it when I make big changes and don’t consult him first. I knew that, and I still got the haircut anyway. And when I got home, he got mad. Honestly, I should have known better.”

Rocking back on my heels, I stare at her in openmouthed horror. I thought maybe he’d cheated on her, or vice-versa, and that’s why they broke up.

I didn’t think it was anything like this.