My chest felt stretched tighter than a rubber band. Any second, I expected myself to snap and fly off. “I didn’t.” I gestured toward Chad. My breathing was shallow and my breath caught. “We didn’t.”

“Vince said it was weird, the three of us always being together. That sooner or later, you and he…” She pointed to Chad. “That you couldn’t just be friends,” she said with a sneer.

“Why the hell are you listening to what Vince says?” I asked, remembering the goon who had stuffed my cookies into his face.

Penny, voice growing louder, kept talking like I hadn’t said anything. “He wasn’t the only one who thought I was making a mistake. But I said you weren’t like that. I stood up for you.”

Was that what she thought? That I’d been eyeing Chad ever since the start? I thought of all those people outside, most of whom I knew and some of whom I didn’t. People who showed up at Penny’s parties every week. Her friends. Who didn’t like me. Who mistrusted me.

And I had proved them right, hadn’t I?

Hopelessness reached a crescendo inside me, and I wanted to throw myself at her, beg and cry for her forgiveness, if that was what it took. Anything to make her stop looking at me like that.

“You don’t know me at all if you think I’d do anything to hurt you,” I said.

“You just did!” Penny almost screamed.

“Hey,” Chad started to say, but she quelled him with a slicing look over her shoulder.

When she turned back to me, her voice was quieter than I’d ever heard it before. “Get out.” All trace of her tears was gone. The shattered porcelain had sharpened into steel.

“Penny—”

“You are uninvited. I don’t want to see you here anymore. I don’t want to see you at all.” She laughed, all kinds of brittle. The sound shredded my heart. “In fact,” Penny whispered, “the next time you see me? We don’t know each other.”

My ears were hot. Everything pounded. My vision blurred. The memory of Elodie crossing the street to avoid me flashed into my mind. Only now her face was replaced with Penny’s. “Let’s talk about this,” I said. “Please, let’s—”

Penny opened the door. “What are you waiting for?” Her voice cut straight through me.

I fled, not caring who I jostled on my way through her tiny living room, past the kitchen, and finally onto the deck. There was nowhere here where I could breathe. I put the bottle I was somehow still holding to my lips. The now-warm beer tasted disgusting, but I swallowed it down.

“Hey, you okay?” Levi was at my side.

I could only imagine how I looked. Pale. Shaken. Unhinged.

“I’m fine,” I said, my voice louder than I’d intended. It seemed magnified to my own ears. “I just … can we get out of here? Go to the beach. Anywhere else.”