Heavily, Tim rose from his chair and lumbered to the coffee machine. As Crissy reached for the full mug he set down before her, a new emotion brewed behind her eyes, but I couldn’t surmise what it was.

When he sat back down, Tim asked about Brett. Crissy explained she’d called her father and told him what happened.

“He wanted to leave right away after that. We had plans to go to the movies the next night and didn’t want to look suspicious, so he said we should take off afterward. Get away before she knew what hit her. So we went to the drive-in,” she said, “but as soon as Felicia dropped us off, Abe started looking for Brett. All he knew was that his dad was leaving town, and he was scared he’d never see Brett again. I panicked. I didn’t want him making a scene, so I decided to tell him the plan. Abe got real quiet. He didn’t argue, though, and I thought, Okay, we’re good. After the movie, Felicia drove us home and we went to our rooms. I packed a bag and told Abe to do the same. Then I sat down and counted the minutes until it was time.”

Crissy took a sip of coffee and licked her lips. Some of her sticky pink lip gloss came off on her tongue. “At one in the morning, I went to get Abe. That was the plan—I’d get him, and we’d sneak out. When I opened the door, he was sitting on his bed and his eyes were like saucers. Felicia was right next to him. She looked ready to skin me alive.”

“He told her,” I said.

“Yeah. We were supposed to meet Brett in less than an hour, and Felicia had a death grip on Abe. She said she’d never let him take us, that she’d report him to the police and we’d never see him again, and then she propped a chair under my door handle so I couldn’t get out. She literally locked me in my room.” Crissy turned to me, and for the first time I felt the full weight of her wrath. “It’s your fault,” she said. “All of it.”

“Me?”

“Don’t you get it? Abe told Felicia everything because of you. He was obsessed with you, Shana, and you lapped it up. You’re the reason we couldn’t get out of there.”

Obsessed? Lapped it up? My legs turned to jelly. “We were friends.”

“Some friend,” she said. “He was a damaged little kid with some pretty sick hobbies, and you encouraged him. You loved it.”

What? No. I could feel Tim’s puzzled gaze bore into me. “They were just games,” I said and almost choked on the words. I felt sick.

“Games,” she repeated with disgust. “We had a chance to start over, to get away from Swanton and live a normal life with Brett, and Abe refused to leave you. He picked you over his own father, and look what happened. I hope you’re fucking happy.”