“Oh,” I said, stalling as I played with the toggles on my coat. I knew this wasn’t going to be like with Cary, where I could just pretend that Stevie and I had gone our separate ways, and not expect any follow-ups. “It’s… we…” I took a shaky breath. “We had a big fight and then we got separated, and I waited and waited but she never came back for me.… She just left me behind in the subway.” Tears stung my eyes as I finally said these words out loud.

“Wow,” Beckett said slowly, rocking back on his heels, adjusting the stack of pizzas in his arms. I noticed now that he was more dressed up than he had been at school, in dark pants and a blue button-down, an open black peacoat over them. For just a minute, like right now, it was like I could see past all my annoyance and anger at him, and there he was—the guy I’d been truly friends with for a year. “But—why were you even with her? I thought she was going into the city to have dinner with her dad.”

I shook my head. “Her dad cancelled,” I said. Beckett rolled his eyes, like he wasn’t surprised by this. “He had to work. So we were going to take the reservation, but then…”

“Wait, how are you guys still separated?” Beckett said, frowning. “Why didn’t you just call her?”

Just like that, I remembered that Beckett was from the Before Times, a world where everyone had a cell phone and could receive things like calls and texts. “I left my phone back in Stanwich,” I said. “And… I broke Stevie’s phone.” I hadn’t planned on saying this, but the second the words left my mouth, I knew they were the truth. Why had I been pretending otherwise? Who did that help? I had been taking her phone all night, not even really asking. I’d grabbed for it and sent it flying—this was on me.. “It was my fault. And that kicked off our fight. She left me behind and ended up with Brad.…”

“Brad?” Beckett’s eyebrows flew up, and there was a touch of jealousy in his voice.

“Mallory’s Pomeranian,” I explained, but judging by the expression on Beckett’s face, this hadn’t cleared anything up.

“God.” Beckett shook his head, his eyes wide. “You’ve been having quite a night.”

“You can say that again.”

“You’ve been having quite a night.” He said it with the exact same intonation, and even though I didn’t want to, I smiled. This was the kind of dorky humor I remembered. Before everything had changed.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking around. “I thought you were going to your parents’ play.”