A few days after school started, while I was stubbornly refusing to attend until my friends could join me, Makayla Thomas, Kaitlyn’s best friend, saw me at the grocery store, still banged up and bruised from the accident. She told everyone that my face is fucked up from botched plastic surgery, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when Charlotte told me about that rumor going around the school. This means everyone’s going to try to get a look at me when I return today with Aiden, but that’s nothing in comparison to what he’s going to face when he steps in the building.

He doesn’t normally open up—it was a miracle when I got him to tell me even the most insignificant detail about himself, and he liked me. Having a bunch of stupid teenagers knowing your business and openly staring at you and stage-whispering as you walk by isn’t something he’ll especially enjoy. I haven’t seen him since the accident because he and Mason just got back last night, but I wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d decided to skip the next few days. But he’s not; he’s going to meet me at school, and while I missed him and am so excited to finally see him properly after a week apart, I’m also dreading it, because it’ll start the countdown to when I leave. Technically, the countdown started last week when school started, but I can’t bring myself to think about that, about how I wasted a week of my life here in King City before I’m relocated without Aiden, without my friend group. I don’t know how much time I have left before I’m forced to leave and become someone new, but I know I don’t want to throw away another single second. I’m going to make the most of it, even if it means going back to school and facing the gossip mongers who have nothing better to do than gawk and stare at us.

As I walk into the school for the first time since the break, I already feel the stares on me. I fidget with the necklace that Aiden got me for Christmas, feeling calmed by its weight. The necklace with a secret button to release a hidden blade has been around my neck since we left the beach house. Obviously, I know I shouldn’t be wearing it to school, but I can’t bear to take it off now. Besides the fact that Aiden got it for me and that its presence is comforting, I didn’t wear it the night Aiden and I went to meet with Vivienne Henfrey, and we were run off the road and almost killed. I could’ve really used it then against Harvey, so I’d much rather have it on me now, just in case. Besides, it doesn’t look like a switchblade, so I’m sure I won’t get in any trouble since no one will know. Either way, I keep it tucked under the collar of my shirt when I’m not fidgeting with it.