“For not feeling worse,” she said.

“You feel bad for not feeling bad?”

“My parents told Spencer first,” she explained, “since he’s the oldest. He just went into his room for a while. I think he really got it, how bad it was. Then they told Lola, and she got really upset. My parents couldn’t calm her down. That was bad.”

The food arrived, but he waved his hand to show he was still listening.

“Everyone was terrified of telling me,” she said, “but I’d figured it out by then, and I guess I was…okay with it or something. I just thought that if you got sick, you went to the hospital and someone made you better. Which is kind of what happened. I’m the mean one, I guess.”

“You’re not mean,” he said. “You’re just kind of…fearless.”

Was he high? Fearless? There were a lot of words that Scarlett could have used to describe herself…well, actually, there weren’t, but…if she had had a few, fearless would definitely not have been one of them.

“You just seem like you’ll tackle any problem put in front of you,” he said, thickly spreading ketchup on his burger.

“They don’t go away if you don’t,” she said. “And my ideas are usually bad.”

He shook his head.

“I don’t think you get my point,” he said. “See, I lived in fear of coming here. I come from this little town where everybody knows each other. I was a big star there. I was, like, the actor. Here, there are real famous people. Every other person you meet is an actor. You go to auditions, and there are a hundred people in line ahead of you. Everyone’s talented, everyone’s good-looking, everyone has a good agent. Everyone has a story. Like you.”

Before, liking Eric was like a mirror—it was just a shiny thing, and it only went one way. But he was looking back at her now, and with interest. This was it. This was what people were talking about when they described falling in love. She was almost watching it happen to herself, like she was on the outside of her body.

So it was a bad time for her phone to ring. Mrs. Amberson’s name popped up on the screen.

“She never leaves you alone, does she?” Eric said, pointing at the screen with a fry.

Scarlett slipped away from the table to answer, just on the outside chance that Mrs. Amberson could somehow sense the fact that Eric was nearby.

“I need you, O’Hara,” she said, urgency rippling through her voice. “Whatever you’re doing, I need you to drop it at once.”

“Are you okay?” Scarlett asked. “Do you need a doctor or something?”

“I need you! Be here within the hour!”

Scarlett returned to the table, completely frazzled.

“Something’s wrong with her,” she said. “She was telling me she needs me, now. I’ve never heard her like this. But I can’t…”

“Don’t worry,” Eric said, all too quickly. “It sounds important. I’ll bring your sister home.”