She once told me that she liked to have sex because after, it made her forget. And I asked her, “Forget what? Your panties?”

She laughed and almost like she couldn’t believe it herself, she’d say, “No, forget the person I used to be.”

It was hard for me to reconcile the Kori I was friends with against the Kori who used to wear her hair in a ponytail, giggle with Chelsea Westad, and worry about boys seeing her underwear when she did cartwheels on the playground.

She hated that old version of herself. I could hear it in her laugh. I could see it in her eyes when she mocked the BBs. When we went through old yearbooks, that Kori was crossed out with deep cutting strokes.

Shay might’ve had reason to believe the tattoo was about him, but I knew it wasn’t. It was for the old Kori, the one she wanted so much to forget.

After getting the tattoo, singing at the club, and hanging out with Shay, I knew why Kori enjoyed being the new version of herself. I just didn’t know what had made her change in the first place. I gathered somehow Shay might’ve had something to do with it, though.

The more I thought about the night of our date, the more convinced I was that he had wanted to kiss me. But I didn’t understand what had made him change his mind, what had made him put that wall up between us.

The old Serena would have just gotten out of the truck, but instead I leaned quickly over, giving him a hug. I tucked my nose into his neck and I could feel his heart beating through the warm skin of his throat. The sound of his breathing magnified, filling the warm air between us.

Hoping maybe he would get the hint and kiss me, I whispered, “Thanks for being there with me.”

Silence.

My heart rate surged as the quiet stretched. Everything hinged on what I’d do next. My stomach clenched as if I were standing on the ledge of the dam. And I knew falling … no, crashing was a certainty.

I jerked back and quickly grabbed up my bag. This time Shay didn’t stop me from leaving.

He waited while I walked to the door. I tugged the key at my neck and put it in the lock. With a wave of my hand, I heard Shay put the truck in gear. I turned to watch him leave and caught a shifting in the shadows. A dark image by the hedges in front of my door moved. Stood.

“How was our date?”

My breath caught in my lungs. Anthony Beck.

“Anthony? What are you doing here?”

He shoved his hands into his front pockets, his mouth turned downward.

“I guess Lexi?” I nervously flicked my eyes to him.

“Yep.”