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“Ah, here she is,” Zoey said. “My sister.”

Everyone in the circle looked at me.

“We were just talking about you and everyone agrees, you must’ve said something to Mom yesterday. You promised you’d be nice if you came. I didn’t even want you to come. You can never keep your judgmental opinions to yourself.”

I swallowed through the lump in my throat that seemed to be growing. “Can we just go, Zoey?”

“I don’t want to go. I’m having fun. Have you heard of fun?” She held up her bottle. “You were overjoyed when we first got into town and you saw how Mom lived. I could practically hear theI told you soin how you were acting. I’m sure Mom saw through your fake happy act too.”

“That’s not true. I didn’t want you to be disappointed. I was trying to make the best of it.”

“Why do you have to make the best of anything? Mom is fine. What was it that you thought was so shameful? That she lives on a bus? That she sells rocks?”

“No, it was more the leaving thing,” I said. My voice was thickwith emotion and I hated that all these strangers were seeing me like this.

“You sure aren’t giving her any reasons to stay,” my sister said.

I whirled around and took off across the yard. When I got out front, though, I didn’t know where to go. Zoey had driven and our dad was hours away.

“Wren,” a voice said from behind me.

I turned to see Chad standing there. “Do you want a ride?” he asked.

“When are you goinghomehome?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Can I go with you?”

“I’m giving David a ride too. He’s visiting for a few weeks. Does that change your mind?”

It probably should’ve as I pictured David saying,I’m Team Staged,but it didn’t. “No.”

“Then yes, for sure.”

Rule:A surprise is a warning in disguise.

It really sucked when the person I wanted to talk to about everything that had happened was also the person I was never going to talk to again—Asher.

After Chad dropped me off at my mom’s bus, telling me he’d pick me up in the morning, I listened to the fireworks boom outside far into the night as I lay in bed, past feeling. To go along with the soundtrack outside, a text from Asher came through with a picture of fireworks shooting over the bay.Facetime so we can watch a few together?

I didn’t respond.

Instead, I texted Kamala.You around? I need to talk.

My phone almost immediately lit up with a FaceTime call from her. I answered. Her face was in shadows. “Hey! Are you surviving?” A loud crack sounded and her eyes lit up.

“Where are you?” I asked.

She panned her phone across a scene that looked very similarto the photo Asher had sent. Then, before I could react, Dale’s face was on-screen, followed by Asher’s.

“Hi!” Asher said, and I nearly cried. “I see how it is. Best friend over boyfriend?”

Kamala laughed, then she came back on-screen. “Always,” she said. “So what’s up? Mom drama?”

I nodded because it was all I could do to keep the tears in check.

“I’m sorry. You’re coming home in two days, though, right?”