“It’s not that hard,” I told her. “I’ve climbed up there a million times.”

Her eyes shifted to me and narrowed a little. This was clearly not news she’d wanted to hear.

“The best view of the fireworks in Trum is from his rooftop,” I added in explanation.

Bounding over to us, Kane said, “What is this? A party I wasn’t invited to?”

Luisa giggled. She could not stop giggling when Kane was concerned. I had to tell her boys like you a hell of a lot more when you pretend they don’t exist. “Oh, you’re definitely invited!” she gushed.

Somehow the decision was made to go to the woods out back, with the ancient broken-down tree house and a fire pit that must’ve been built by the house’s previous occupants. Such a decision was not made with my consent, but by that time, I didn’t even exist to register a vote. Kane and Luisa were already in their own impenetrable, perfect Kane-and-Luisa bubble. So I yawned some more and told her I’d leave the back door unlocked.

She didn’t come back inside until after three. She refused to say much about what they were doing, but she mentioned that Kane’s dad had finally sent Declan to fetch them. “They’re both gorgeous, Hail! Why didn’t you tell me?” she’d said that morning. “You are more than the luckiest girl in school. I’d kill to live where you do.”

Friday, February 15

Morning

As usual, I wake up with a stomachache. That’s what I take to school with me these days, instead of lunch money. That, and a bottle of…water.

Kane meets me at the car as I pile my books into the back seat and set my water bottle in the console. Before I know it, he’s unscrewing the top. He takes a sniff. “Just checking,” he says.

I yank it from him and tighten the lid. “Who are you, my mother?”

“I’m your passenger. And I don’t want you driving if you’ve been hitting the sauce.”

I try to start the Jeep. It stalls a couple times in the cold before roaring to life. Kane doesn’t know me anymore. He likes to think he does, but I have changed. And spending a couple minutes every day in the passenger seat of my Jeep won’t make him a Hailey expert.

Coming back to Deer Hills three months into the school year is hard enough when you don’t have memories of your dead boyfriend haunting you. I’d kept up with schoolwork at the hospital and came back the week of Thanksgiving because Juliet said a short week would make reentry less stressful.

Wrong.