They both surveyed the street. From far away came the sound of a car starting, along with the usual summer noises of chirping birds, faraway lawn mowers. A truck for a lawn care business rolled down the street. The guy driving waved, and Alexa shivered. What if it wasn’t a lawn care company? What if it was a front for something? Wasn’t that how the Mob operated, making fronts out of everyday businesses? The woman across the street was weeding her garden, wearing a big floppy hat. But what if she wasn’t really the woman from across the street? What if the floppy hat was hiding someone more sinister? Alexa turned back to Cam and saw her own fear reflected in his eyes.

“Listen, Alexa. I know we talked about this the other night. And honestly, like I told you then, I don’t really want to talk about it again. But since you’re here, and since you’re asking, yeah, I’m still mad. This is somebody else’s secret, Alexa. This is serious, serious stuff. I don’t think you thought it through before you spread it around.”

“I didn’t spread it around,” Alexa said defensively. “I told you, Cam, only you.” Her voice cracked on the last word.

He didn’t seem to have heard her. “You know what makes me the most mad about this? Nobody gave you this secret. You read it in a little girl’s diary. You took the secret. And when it got too heavy for you, you handed it to me!”

Her face burned. She was tan enough that she didn’t think it showed, but she could feel it. She thought back to the day she first opened the notebook. In fairness, she didn’t know what it contained. But part of her, glittering evilly in the darkness of her psyche, knew that she would have done it anyway, had she known. In fact, she might have done it faster. In a very small voice she said, “I didn’t think—”

“That’s right,” Cam said. “You didn’t think. And that’s the problem with this whole situation.” There was something so teacherly about the way he said this, so fatherly and judgmental, that the flame of anger in Alexa burned higher, licking at her, activating the very meanest parts of her.

“Forget this,” she said. “I don’t care anymore. I’m getting out of here as soon as I can anyway. And not to college either. I gave up my spot at Colby. I’m going farther away than that.” She was trying to shock him into something, some sort of reaction, but when she searched his face she didn’t see any shock. All she saw was a deep, deep well of sadness, so deep she couldn’t find the bottom.

“Come on, Alexa,” he said. “You don’t mean that.”