Cassie continued, “And if she’s honest about where she comes from, most guys, most good guys, they run screaming. So she plays the odds, I think. Any time she’s with a guy who might work, she takes her shots. A lot of the time those guys aren’t great people, y’know? I kind of got hopeful, seeing her around the good guys, this time around, and not the guy who pops pills or the fourteen-year-old who’s killed people. That’s why I acted weird and ranty.”

“It’s fine. Really truly. It came from a good place. No judgment.”

“Her dad used to throw away women when they were twenty-two or twenty-five or around that age. I think she kind of feels like she has a time limit, and after that no guy’s going to want her around?”

“Fuck,” I said.

“And I can show her Charlotte and Forrest or Nancy and Theo and point to them, and I tell her they’re happy together. But she doesn’t really see it and I don’t think she even totally gets why she feels like she has the time limit. She can know it’s logical and feel a complete other way.”

“I’m running into that an awful lot,” I said. “The feelings and rationale being in completely different places. She’s lucky to have a friend like you, you know?”

“Snuggle buddy. Best friend. Shitty thing about Nancy and Theo, you know? I was all, rah rah, look, they’re so cute together, they’re so happy. Role models, woo. Then they broke up. I actually think it messed her up a little. She was at the farm when it happened and the next day she went back to New Brockton with barely a goodbye. We never even talked to them, we ate at the same table sometimes, but…”

“Yeah. I see what you mean. Kind of connects.”

“Yeah.”

“You want good things for your best friend.”

“I want good things for a lot of the people here. I thought—I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this. Rachel doesn’t care, she says to be open, but it’s Chastity’s whole deal I’m talking about and now I’m feeling like I’m betraying her by talking to a near-stranger about it.”

“I won’t say a word,” I said.

“Thank you. I can’t really talk to Rachel about stuff like this. She’s great. She’s the very best. But not for talking. Tattletale used to be someone we could go to, but she got worn out, and it became a not-this-week thing, and then a not-this-month thing. I was going to ask Imp for help, but she’s hurt now, and she’s not here.”

“Help?” I asked.