I swallow. “Yes, but it happened before you and I met, so there was nothing to tell.”

A smile spreads over his face, but it’s not a happy one. It’s ironic and pained. “Hailey. I don’t care that it happened. I care that you never told me that you’d slept with my stepbrother. You never told me. All those times we talked about our first time, and you simply went along with it. You really think I’d care if you had sex before?”

I nodded. “Yes, because—”

He shook his head. “No. It wouldn’t have mattered. I wouldn’t have cared if you slept with a thousand people before me, if I thought you were being honest with me.”

“But…”

“You need to stop. With the pictures. With whatever you’re doing. Just stop,” he said, running his hands through his hair. “Because I can’t take it. I loved you so much, Hailey.”

Loved. Past tense.

My heart broke open. It spilled all over that classroom.

And he didn’t care.

“So much, I would’ve done anything for you. I would’ve gotten past any of your flaws.” He gazed at me as he spoke, his words trembling in his throat, and I remembered how he could gaze at me with a love so intense it could put my pieces back together. Now, his stare was so cold I felt myself ripping at the seams. “But you lied to me the whole time. For a whole year. And I can’t get past that. No matter what you say, it’s too late.”

He picked up his bag and started to leave. I tried to block the door, but I wasn’t fast enough, and I couldn’t think of anything to say. He had every right to hate me. I didn’t have to ask him if we were over. I knew the answer. “You’re with Luisa, then.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I am.”

And he walked away, leaving me alone and in a thousand pieces that would never come back together the same way again.

Friday, June 14

Early congratulations to me, I think, licking chocolate icing off the doughnut I’d bought from Yum Yum Donut Shop.

I page through my Facebook feed, reading all the congratulations and “This is the first day of the rest of our lives!” crap. I should be donning my cap and gown to say goodbye to Deer Hills High with them. Unfortunately, due to my Shady Harbor stay, I’m two classes short of graduating, which I’ll remedy this summer.

I stop on Nina’s feed, where there’s a picture of the happy graduating couple. Javier’s wearing his green gown and grinning, but under the gown, I can only see his spindly, hairy ankles. It looks like he’s not wearing a stitch of clothing, which is probably why Nina is frowning in the picture. I smile.