I stood near my car, eyes scanning the doors of the school until I saw Hallie walk out, her reddish hair covered by a gray beanie. When I called her name, she pivoted, brought one hand up to block the sun as she peered at me.

“Hi, Hallie,” I said as I approached. “I’m Junie’s mom. We’ve met a few times.”

“I remember,” she said, voice cautious. She clutched a notebook to her chest like a shield. Around her, kids peeled off toward the buses, eyeing us with curiosity but not slowing down.

“Can I talk to you?” I asked.

Hallie glanced at the buses and then nodded. “For a second. I don’t want to miss my bus.”

“Okay, sure.” I stepped away from the doors and Hallie trailed behind me. When I turned around, she was biting her bottom lip, her eyes on the ground.

“I’m really sorry about Junie,” she whispered. “And Izzy, too.”

I knew people were trying to be kind, but I was already tired of this ritual. Did people actually think their being sorry helped? That my hearing an endless litany of worthless words over and over and over again made anything better? But Hallie was just a kid, I reminded myself, the same age as Junie. I swallowed down what I really wanted to say and managed a thank-you instead.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” I said. “Was Izzy dating an older guy?”

Hallie’s eyes flew up to mine, and I knew right then she hadn’t been raised in a house like the one where I grew up. She had no poker face. My mother would have eaten her alive. “What?” she managed to stumble out, her cheeks flaring red. “No. I don’t know.”

I raised my eyebrows at her and waited. I figured it would take twenty seconds of silence to break her, but it only took ten. “I mean, she wasn’t like dating him. But she liked him.” Hallie paused, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “They messed around some.”

“Who was he?” I asked, my heart a steady drumbeat pounding got him got him got him.

Hallie shrugged. “I don’t know. Honest,” she added when she glanced at my face. “Izzy would never say.”

“Did Junie know who it was?”

“Yeah, I think so. But she always kept Izzy’s secrets.” Hallie took a step closer to me, lowered her voice. “They fought about it, though. Junie was threatening to tell someone if Izzy didn’t stop. She seemed really worried about Izzy.”

“Do you know how old this guy was?” I asked. Eighteen, I was thinking. Please say eighteen and not something worse.

“Old,” Hallie said. “I don’t know exactly. But maybe thirty?”

“Why would you say that?” I tried to keep my voice steady even as my stomach bottomed out.

“Just the way they talked about him. He wasn’t a teenager. Not even close.” Hallie looked over her shoulder, started shuffling backward. “I gotta go. I’m gonna miss the bus.” When she met my eyes again, I could see it there, something she wanted to say but wasn’t going to. Something that was trapped behind her clenched teeth.