It was only group texts from then on, and hanging out became a trio activity. We’d made a few Golden Trio jokes—Penny insisted she was Harry, even though we all knew she was a total Slytherin—and at first, I hadn’t seen it. That Penny couldn’t, or wouldn’t, trust us on our own.

The stare I exchanged with Penny had turned into a stalemate. I couldn’t say anything, not if I didn’t know what the right answer was. I was keenly aware of the dull, throbbing beats of my heart.

The silence had lingered too long. Enough for Lucy’s friendly smile to waver into something awkward and uncertain. I wondered if she even knew what a minefield her innocent suggestion had been.

“Sure,” I said at long last. I was testing the waters, so I made sure not to look away, not even to blink. “I mean, if you’re sure you’re not going to do it. The competition. With Chad.”

“Uh, I don’t think so.” Penny’s face betrayed nothing. “So, Luce, I’ll just take my usual to go.”

The couple sitting at one of the tables by the door scraped back their chairs. While Lucy began preparing Penny’s drink, I headed to clean up the mess. Some coffee had spilled onto the table, milky liquid pooled in the dents and gouges of the wood. I took my sweet time clearing up. After carrying the used cups and plates back to the dishwasher, I swept away muffin crumbs and sopped up the coffee. By the time I was done, Penny had already gone. A glance out the window told me she was biking away. My heart twinged—this morning could definitely have gone better.

I wrung out the rag in the sink. Coffee dribbled down the drain in a steady brown stream.

“Is everything okay with you two?” asked Lucy. “It’s just … I kind of feel like I stuck my foot in it back there. About you and Chad?”

I squeezed the rag even harder. “Nah, everything’s good.”

“You sure?” she pressed.

It wasn’t my place to tell Lucy that my friends had broken up, and that I’d been way more involved in the process than I wanted to be. I shifted my feet, leaving the rag draped over the sink. “It’s fine, we’re fine, it’s all fine,” I said through a smile, although the words were more for myself than for her.

We’re fine, we’re fine, we’re fine became my new mantra, although the repetition did zero to convince me. Partly because I already had the feeling deep in my gut that we weren’t.

“Oh, shit. Babe.” Lucy glanced at the wall clock. Both hands had aligned at the twelve. “Don’t you have to go check in the dude who’s renting your mom’s house?”