LJ came back out of the house with a short-sleeved button-down shirt and pulled it on over his bare chest as he stepped over Guitar Guy’s seat on the stairs. A scrap of candy wrapper drifted down the cracked sidewalk between his house and the street, and he swooped it up, stuffing it into the chest pocket of his shirt.

Now he smiled. His eyes first, then his high cheekbones, then that huge grin spreading across his face like the sunrise. “What are you doing here, Andie-girl?” he murmured, pulling her into his chest. His arms held more tension than usual, and he hugged her almost too tight.

Over his shoulder, his friends watched, and she closed her eyes. Sweat slicked the skin of his back, and his shirt was clammy against her palms as the sun beat down on them. She’d imagined this moment a lot of times, but never with the dry ache of her tongue begging for a drink of water. She wanted to tell him so many things: that she missed him, that she wanted to help with his mom, that her body didn’t feel like her enemy anymore. But all those things sounded stupid to say in front of his friends, and he let her go before she could think of a safer topic.

“Get you in out of the sun, girl,” Guitar Guy said. “All that white-ass skin, you’re gonna burn.”

“Ty,” a female voice whispered. “Shut up.”

Andra’s hair clung to the back of her neck, the black strands seeming to soak up all the sun, cooking her scalp. She could barely think. “No, he’s right.” She gathered her hair up, holding it in a messy handful and waving her other hand to cool the molten-hot pulse at her throat.

She glanced up, and the other girl waved from the far side of the porch, yellow nail polish flashing on a light-brown hand. She gave Andra a shy smile, the yellow lettering on her Star Wars T-shirt perfectly matching her nails. Andra grinned back, relief making it come out a little too enthusiastic.

LJ ushered her toward the shade of the porch, using his bare foot to nudge a stick out of the sidewalk and back onto the lawn. The loose basketball shorts he wore didn’t match the shirt that hung so nicely from his shoulders.

Ty gave her an easy smile and swung his legs out of the way so she could climb the stairs.

“Guys, this is Andra. Andra, this is Tash, Ty’s sister.” LJ went on to introduce the five guys on the porch, reeling off names that the heat sapped out of her muzzy head as soon as he spoke them. “Are you hungry? My mama’s asleep, but I could come up with a little something.”

“Yes,” she said automatically, her stomach tightening with a little groan. “Or wait, no. I had lunch on the way here.”