“Hi, Phantom of the Opera,” Nessa joked.

“Get out.” Sophie stormed toward him. One of Brody’s followers? How dare he invade their choir room?

“Wait! He defended Eve when she didn’t want Brody to touch her!” Nessa giggled. “Pretty great!”

“Gross.” Sophie shot her a glare. Sophie thought of her mom. Of Mrs. Jackson, who helped take care of Bella and had four grandchildren to take care of, too. Of all that Sophie had to do to get through these awful days. They didn’t need help from any boy. “He needs to go.” She arrived at his chair and motioned for him to leave.

“But what if he can help?” Eve suggested.

“We just decided this is all hopeless!” Sophie argued.

“Let’s just hear him out.” Nessa gestured for Winston to begin.

“Um…” Winston fumbled for words.

It took everything in Sophie not to snap, “Come on! Out with it!” but she knew Nessa and Eve wouldn’t like that. She walked down with him to the first row choir seats, and all the girls sat as Winston stood in front of the piano and chalkboard and spoke.

“He brags about it all the time,” Winston mumbled. “He talks about why he put each girl where. Why he left certain girls off.”

Okay. Interesting. Why had he put her as number two? Was it just the kiss?

She shouldn’t still care. She shouldn’t! Why should she care what he thought after he ruined her life? But she did. She hated herself for it, but she did.

Before Sophie could ask about herself, Eve jumped in, her face all tortured and sad. “Why was I number one?”

“Maybe to cause drama?” Winston’s low voice cracked a tiny bit. “He’s such a jerk…”

It felt funny to hear one of Brody’s guys saying that.

“And why would he tell people I wrote the list?” Eve asked.

“You embarrassed him,” Winston answered.

And when Sophie heard that, she knew she didn’t need to ask why she was number two. She’d been right all along. She’d turned him down and embarrassed him. That explained everything. You didn’t say no to guys like Brody.

Winston turned to Sophie, blushing. “He also brags that he drove you crazy. You probably shouldn’t have told everybody that you wouldn’t kiss him back.”

“I’ll do what I want, thank you,” Sophie answered.

“Okay. But, yeah. I told you. Jerk,” Winston grumbled. “He says stuff about how someone’s eyebrows can make them not in the top ten, or someone’s toes can make them not on the list and stuff.”

“What?” Nessa smacked her own forehead. “A girl’s toes? Let’s get a look at his toes, huh?”

“That’s so stupid,” Eve added.

“It’s all stupid!” Winston turned away from them and hit the top of the piano, just like Sophie had the night of the assembly, she remembered. “And even when the guys don’t agree with him, or don’t care, they just say ‘yeah, you’re right’ to whatever he says. My best friend … Well, my ex–best friend, Caleb, he just listens and laughs and is like ‘totally, man.’”