When I was on the ledge, I noticed how Gordo and Vin relaxed their grip on Chaz once I had their attention. Gordo would never have admitted it, but I could also see fear creeping into his triumph—he didn’t actually want me to fall. He wanted—who knows what? Vindication? Relief? An outlet? Whatever it was, Chaz faded from view for a minute, and where Gordo’s attention went, so did his buddies’.

Chaz had locked his eyes on mine, and I’d tried for all I was worth to send him the bravest message of my life: Run. He’d gotten it, and when I’d nodded, it wasn’t for Gordo, but for him. While they were shouting at me, he stealthily drew away and disappeared into the woods.

By the time they clued in, it was only a dark forest behind them.

They realize this now and bolt into the woods, swearing.

And … I’m left out here alone.

My eyes are closed, and they’re going to stay that way. I don’t look over the edge of the outcropping because I don’t dare. I sit with my back against the cliff, my legs—one knee gashed from slamming against rock on the way over—folded yogi style. My face throbs from the thrown rock that now seems a million years ago. I sob into my hands and taste iron. How can it be that I started the week in glitter and ended in blood?

I’m so tired. Worst-night-of-my-life tired. I almost sink into the rock. I could sleep for a million years. I just want to lie down. Down …

I jolt upright. I can’t fall asleep here. I have to stay awake until Chaz sends help.

With the goons gone, it should be quiet, but it’s not at all. The quarry holds the sounds of nightlife like a bowl. An owl lets its call fly: hoo-hoo-HOO. Some bird I can’t guess keeps chirping Beet. (Hard pause.) Beet. (Hard pause.) Beet. A bell-like song chimes above a bass line of grumbling, and I think both are frogs, but maybe they’re insects, and now I wish I had paid better attention in sophomore biology. I practice imitating the sounds, though the hoo-hoo-HOO gets more insistent when I do, which unnerves me a little.

I have a lot of time to think.

All this time, I thought there were only two options about what happened to Chaz in the original timeline: he jumped, or some Townies threw him. Now I wonder if there were Townies at all or if it was always Gordo and his crew.

I think about all the work Ma Elena put into decorating the cafeteria and how the night is probably ruined, and then about how she will someday grow up to be a nurse who people think is amazing, but who I often treat like she’s nowhere near my level.