When you’re best friends with someone, sometimes you see a private moment meant for family, a vulnerable moment too intimate to be shared with outsiders, and there you are like a fly on the wall wishing someone would smack you with a rolled-up newspaper.

The first time, Kori and I had only been friends for a month. We’d snuck down to the hot tub during some important business dinner her father was having. It wasn’t like we were interrupting their party or anything, but through the dining room windows some of the guests could sort of see us.

All of a sudden, in the middle of dessert, Kori stood up and flashed them, Girls Gone Wild style. And that’s when all hell broke loose.

Kori’s brother Kyle, who had just started college and was working for their dad, came rushing over. He dragged Kori out and started shouting. If you ask me, he made a much bigger scene than she had, with all of his, “What the fuck are you trying to pull? Don’t you understand how important this dinner is?”

“Oh, I know exactly how important it is,” she said, tight-jawed.

Kyle was in her face, livid. “You have no respect for Dad’s business. Hell, you have no respect for your own goddamn body.”

“Fuck you. You really think Dad gives a damn about me or my body? Why should I?”

Kyle looked her up and down like he might spit on her. “Why do you have to be so fucking insane all the time? Always trying to one-up yourself. You think you’re cool? You’re a fucking embarrassment.”

It stung. Not just his words, which were as harsh as any I’d ever heard one person speak to another, but because he’d said them in front of me. It was as close to getting a “truth” out of Kori as I ever came, but it was one she’d never intended to share. It was a violation.

Just like the memorial statue was.

“Sorry, Lex,” I said as I shoved my books in. “I’ve got plans.”

If the simple act of wearing Kori’s makeup got Lexi all bent, I wondered what she’d think of my singing with Bleeder Valve.

“No, Ser,” Cole said, trapping me on the other side. “No more hiding in your room, avoiding our calls.”

“We’re going for pizza and to the movies. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but we’ll have fun, lots of fun. Promise.” Lexi’s eyes were pleading, trying to pull something out of me, but I wasn’t sure what.

Cole had a wide smile plastered on, too many teeth showing. “Doesn’t that sound fun?”

Lexi’s head bobbed along, nodding in my direction. Yes, Serena, come with us! She spoke in big bubbly words. “You love pizza!”