“Well, here we are,” Mitch said when they pulled up in front of Elisa’s house.

They did the usual kiss and catch, and he waited in the driveway until Elisa’s mom opened the front door and waved to him.

In the kitchen, Elisa and Kayla were rolling out pizza dough.

“I’m so glad you could come!” Elisa said, giving Annabelle a hug.

Kayla hugged her, too, and Annabelle wondered how much Jeremy had told her about what had happened that night, from his warped Annabelle-and-Connor-are-both-awful perspective. She wondered how much Elisa knew, too, since Elisa hadn’t even been there.

Elisa and Kayla both wore tank tops and jean shorts, and Annabelle felt out of place. She’d tried on lots of different outfits in case they really did go to the bonfire and had finally decided on the white denim capris Mia had said made her butt look good back when Mia still gave her compliments. She’d paired them with Mom’s long-sleeved, wide-necked, blue-and-white-striped shirt. She was ten times dressier than Kayla and Elisa, and she’d probably just get pizza sauce on her white pants.

“I feel so bad that you fell,” Kayla said, touching Annabelle’s wrist brace. “I knew that whole thing was a terrible idea. I should have said something.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” Elisa added, glancing at Kayla. “I . . . had plans with some other friends, but . . . I didn’t realize it would be like that.”

“It’s fine,” Annabelle said, straightening the bottom of her too-fancy shirt and swallowing the words she wanted to say: I can make my own decisions, and I can take care of myself!

Yes, everything had turned out pretty terribly, but that was bad luck. That didn’t mean she’d needed Kayla to send her and Jeremy home like little kids with an early bedtime or Elisa to somehow intervene.

“It’s really so bad that you can’t swim the whole rest of the summer?” Kayla asked.

“Well . . . it’ll be a while,” Annabelle said, messing with the fraying Velcro on the brace.

There was a long pause before Elisa announced, “The dough’s all ready! Let’s make some pizza!”

So they made one pepperoni and one with lots of veggies, and then Elisa insisted on a weird one with random stuff from the fridge and cabinets. She used pesto instead of tomato sauce and layered artichoke hearts and banana peppers on top of the cheese. Kayla had to stop her from adding canned pineapple, too.

“It’s Hawaiian!” Elisa said.

“Um, not with pesto and this other stuff,” Kayla told her.

But they were all laughing and having fun now. Elisa was good at realizing when people were uncomfortable and doing something to break the tension.

And actually, the weird pizza wasn’t bad. Kayla stuck to the veggie kind, and Annabelle caught herself doing what Jeremy would have done if he was here—noticing what food Kayla chose and how long it took her to eat it—but she told herself to stop. That was kind of like Mia watching when Annabelle got a test back to see whether or not she was upset. It felt terrible to know that other people were too aware of something that made you vulnerable. She knew that firsthand.