“We know,” she says. “First, we’re not going to panic until we look at the handbook. Second, you don’t get to take all the blame.” She sighs. “I’m pissed, but I’m not pissed at you.”

I nod, but the loop in my head is clanging. My fault. Their futures. My fault. Their college acceptances, and it’s all my fault. Angles is gone, and it’s all my own fault. If I hadn’t pissed off Christopher. Maybe I should have been nice to him. Maybe I could have pretended. The thought makes me sick. Everything about this is making me feel sick. I can’t stand this.

We push outside into the glaringly white quad. Katherine takes my mittens out of my pocket and hands them to me as we crunch back down the sidewalk to our dorm. My hands are shaking, but I manage to shove my mittens on.

“I only know of one kid who got an immoral-conduct charge,” Katherine says, startling me out of my doom spiral. “The cameras in the girls’ room in the north gymnasium. That sophomore boy.”

“That’s actual immoral conduct,” Nevaeh says. “They’re charging us as if we’d done something that repulsive and beyond the pale.”

“Do you remember those seniors last year, with the bonfire by the lake—they were down there drinking and half of them ended up in the water naked,” Katherine says. “I’m pretty sure they just got demerits.”

We were supposed to be bored out of our minds in detention for the rest of the year, not terrified about being expelled, and about everything else we’re likely to lose. I shouldn’t be berating myself for not being nice to a dude who didn’t deserve a second of my time. I shouldn’t feel so hopeless right now.

“Jack wasn’t in there,” I say, remembering.

“I’ll text him,” Katherine says, glancing at me. “Find out whether he’s been there yet.”

“Maybe he’ll enjoy being called immoral,” Nevaeh says. “He’s such a nice boy.”

I snort at that, and she laughs.

We should talk, me and Jack. God, we should talk about all of this, from what happened in his room to what happened in the dean’s office, but the idea feels like too much right now. Everything feels like too much. From here, the rumors and the gossip about us that have already been trickling out are going to flood campus, and we’ll have to wade through it all like everything is normal. I’m not ready to think about that yet, but I don’t think that’s going to matter.

“Christopher must have found out,” Katherine is saying as we swing left to go around the dance building. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Another knee-jerk twitch in my head—if only I hadn’t brushed him off and made him angry.