“I’m not going to beat her up, I just wanna talk.” Annalisa pulls the multiple rings off her fingers and shoves them in her pockets, then strides from the room.

“Then why did you take off your rings?” I shout as Charlotte and I scramble after her.

This is not good, and Charlotte knows it, too, as we weave through the kids in the hall to catch up to Annalisa. She marches through the hallway with an angry purpose, stopping suddenly and causing Charlotte and me to practically run into her. She charges into the dark room where we last saw Aliyah; she’s still making out with Chase. She’s on his lap on one of the couches, and they look like they’re thoroughly enjoying each other’s company.

Annalisa walks right up to her, grabs her arm, and before I can stop her, roughly pulls Aliyah off of Chase, the force causing her to land on her ass on the floor.

Chase, who’s already pretty drunk, looks confused when the girl on his lap suddenly disappears. Charlotte must be the first person he sees, because he says her name almost reverently, as if hoping she was jealous and pulled a girl off his lap.

“Do you want to tell me what you’ve been saying, Aliyah?” Annalisa fumes at the girl sprawled on the floor. The other people in the room halt their conversations to watch the unfolding scene.

Chase looks at Charlotte sadly, probably realizing that it was Annalisa who interrupted his make-out session. “What the hell’s your problem, Anna?”

Annalisa’s dark smoky makeup makes her narrowed eyes look all the more intimidating. “My problem is that Aliyah is going around talking about me and my family, saying that we’re a bunch of murderers!”

Aliyah clambers to her feet in an instant.

“Your brother is a murderer!” Aliyah has to yell over the loud music to be heard.

“Anna, this isn’t helping with the whole Wacko Anna White thing,” I whisper.

She brushes off my concern and glares at Aliyah, who shifts uncomfortably on her feet as Annalisa’s gaze grows more and more heated.

“And all that stuff about ‘Anna’s going around telling people she comes from a family of murderers’? Where’d you get that one, Aliyah?”

“Fiona heard you say it, a couple others did too,” Aliyah says.

More than a couple of people are watching now, whispering and pointing at Annalisa. Some have even ventured in from the hall to see what the commotion is all about.

Annalisa looks like she’s going to snap, and as I mentally run through ways to de-escalate the situation, something seems to click behind Annalisa’s eyes, and the hostility in her posture deflates. “Just go, Aliyah.”

Aliyah looks wistfully at Chase, who still looks confused. “But—”

“Get out of my face!” Annalisa yells loudly.

Aliyah jumps up and scrambles out of the room, passing Julian on the way out.

“Anna . . .” I start.

“There’s no point. The rumors are already out there. People are going to say whatever they want to say anyway. It’s fine.” She aggressively shoves her rings back onto her fingers, contradicting her last statement.