But I need to finish this conversation with Cora. Otherwise, it’ll burn into my skin all night, like acid. I reach out and spin him around until he’s facing the opposite side of the street. “Can you do one last house? Have you done this house yet?” I point, and as I do, I suddenly realize it’s Alec’s house that Cora and I have been arguing across the street from. My gaze wanders from the patch of grass where I tripped and fell, then to the front porch, which is adorned with at least a dozen jack-o’-lanterns.

“Okay, last one, but it looks stupid, too,” Max says and starts crossing the street.

“Wait,” I say. “I’ll go with you.”

He turns. “Why?”

Because the only thing more important than skewering my sister is seeing someone who makes me smile. “Alec lives there. Micah’s dad. I want to say hi.”

Alec probably isn’t even home. Most likely, he’s out with Micah doing the same thing I am, minus the horrifying familial argument.

Cora waits back on the far sidewalk, looking up and down the dark street. I walk a step behind Max, as if treating him like a shield. Up the sidewalk, to the door. We’re the only ones here, though I spy a group of four kids coming from the house next door.

Max rings the bell and it’s only seconds before it opens.

Alec.

A wave of comfort washes over me, and it’s something I cannot explain. It’s as if I’ve found the one good person in Bury, the one person who won’t judge, won’t blame, won’t gossip, and won’t look at me for anyone else than who I am. I have no idea if any of that is true, but his energy conveys that, and I don’t want to argue myself out of it.

Especially now, when I’m still so frazzled from what Cora just said. How she’s actively planning to blame me for what happened to Caleb.

He looks at me first, and the second the recognition hits, the smile comes out, wide and genuine.

“Rose,” he says.

“Trick or treat.”

Alec’s gaze is pulled away by Max’s voice. He looks down at my son and says, “Well, hey there, Max. You just missed Micah. He went out with some of the other sixth graders.” Alec steps out onto the porch and looks down the street. “They’re probably not too far. You could catch up to them pretty easily.”

Max shrugs. “We’re going home after your house.”

“So early?” Alec steps back into his house, grabs a couple of candy bars, and drops them into Max’s pail. “If I’m your last house, then I’ll give you two. How’s that sound?”

“Okay.”

Alec turns to me and leans against his doorframe.

“So, Rose, how are—”

“Do you want to go out sometime?”

I don’t know how it happened. The words just came out, sure as if I was just speaking them in my head. But I heard them, and clearly he did, too, because Alec’s eyes widen and humiliation threatens to buckle my legs.