“Sorry for trying to help you,” Jeremy snapped. He moved to the far edge of the bench, as if he couldn’t handle being near her.

This was Jeremy, who had collected quartz stones and examined seagull nests with her in sixth-grade science. Who kept on swimming the end of a lap of breast-stroke, over and over, just so she could practice her start. Whose eyes lit up when he talked about Bertha the white shark. He was her friend, and he had come back for her.

She started to scooch over toward him, but then he added, “Sorry for being the only one who tried. Unlike Connor Madison, who just let you get hurt and then didn’t bother to check on you!”

He spat out Connor’s name like it was a bad word, and every single muscle in her body tensed.

“He didn’t know I was hurt! If you’d replied to Kayla instead of texting your mom, they all would have known and they could have come to find us! They’re probably looking for us right now!”

An angry glare transformed Jeremy’s features. Annabelle’s mom always said what a sweet face Jeremy had, and Annabelle knew what she meant. There was something about how fast his smile came and how round and heavily lashed his eyes were—it was obvious from the first time you saw him that Jeremy was someone who’d never be cruel.

But it was not a sweet face that looked at Annabelle right now.

“Go ahead and text them, then,” Jeremy said. “Go find out for yourself how much Connor cares.”

He let out a mean little laugh after he said it. The kind of laugh that said, “How stupid are you, Annabelle?” She’d heard it from other kids sometimes when a teacher called on her even though she didn’t want to be called on and she said something really, really wrong. But she’d never heard it from Jeremy before now.

She blinked back the tears that pricked her eyes. “Fine. I will.”

First, she texted Kayla, who wrote right back to say she was so sorry Annabelle had fallen and then called Jeremy. He took a few steps away to take the call, and all Annabelle could hear were his whispered promises that he wouldn’t say anything to his mom that would get Kayla in trouble.

Annabelle stared at the display on her phone, but it only showed the time and the old background picture of her and Mia blowing kisses at the camera.

Connor would have no idea she was hurt unless she told him. He might assume she and Jeremy had decided they’d rather hang out, just the two of them. He might think she like-liked Jeremy. She had to text him, she realized.

I’m a little banged up but OK, she wrote.

She dug her fingernails into the raw skin of her left palm again and bit back a scream. Ruby was probably with Connor right now, cozying up to him and trying to make him forget Annabelle’s black bathing suit and how easy she was to lift high in the air.