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“But he wasn’t just some guy,” Maisie argues. “He was the love of Rachel’s life and Darcy was a twat who was cheating on him anyway.”

“I just don’t get how friends can do that to one another.”

It takes me way longer than it should to realize that Lyric has been through something very similar, having caught her best friend in bed with her boyfriend of four years.

Weirdly, River also caughthisgirlfriend having sex with one of his friends. Not sure what they’re putting in the water down there in North Carolina, but I want no part of it.

“You’re thinking about Leo and Summer.” It’s Maisie who finally broaches the subject, a tenderness in her voice that she reserves for very delicate situations.

Lyric nods softly.

“I mean, I’m over it, of course. I’m so in love with Kai I could burst at the seams. In that way, I’m even grateful. Because if they hadn’t done what they did, I never would have ended up here. I never would have met Kai... Or either of you.” Her gaze bounces between the two of us. “But when I think back to what happened... I just wish Summer had told me she was in love with Leo. Maybe it wouldn’t have been easy to accept, but at least then we could have tried to salvage our friendship. But instead, she lied and betrayed me in a way that was utterly unforgivable. I think more than anything, that’s what makes me the most sad, that I can’t forgive her. That years of friendship are just... gone.”

“Sometimes it’s for the best,” Maisie reassures her. “Anyone who would do that to you wasn’t a true friend to begin with.” When Maisie’s eyes dart to me, the nauseous pit in my stomach opens even further, the pizza and popcorn I ate earlier stirring uncomfortably.

There’s nothing accusatory in her gaze, but it’s unsettling just the same.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” I chime in.

And I really do. Because if Summer and Leo hadn’t chased Lyric out of North Carolina, not only would I have never met her, I also would have never met her brother.

“Me too,” Lyric agrees. “Like fate knows exactly what it’s doing. Even when it feels like your life is crumbling down around you, there’s always a purpose. Something greater you’re being called toward. Like Mac.” She turns to Maisie for a brief moment before her gaze slips to mine. “Or Conner. Even though it sucks that neither of them realized what incredible women you are and how insanely stupid they are for letting you slip through their fingers, at the end of the day, it’s because something better awaits you both. I truly believe that.”

My stomach twists again, this time so violently I have to grit my teeth closed and take a few deep breaths through my nose to keep myself from actually puking.

I told Lyric that Conner and I decided we were better off friends and left it at that. I didn’t want to lie to her any more than I already was and keeping up the Conner charade just felt... wrong. The only reason I even told her that in the first place was because we lived together and it was better than refusing to tell themwhoI was spending every night on the phone texting with. That only made them want to know more. Once I said it was Conner, they both stopped asking. So in a way, it did exactly what I needed it to. Now that she’s living with Kai, I don’t need a cover. Especially given that Maisie already knows the truth.

“You’re both going to find someone who makes you feel the way Kai makes me feel. Like I can’t breathe in his presence. Like when he walks into a room, the whole world stops. He touches me and I’m lost to the sea. He is the moon, the stars, the sun—my entire universe. And I love him so deeply that sometimes it scares me.”

“Rub it in, why don’t you.” Maisie snorts out a laugh.

“I’m not...”

“Relax, Lyric. I’m kidding.” Maisie jabs an elbow gently into Lyric’s side. “We are both insanely happy for you. Aren’t we, Char?”

“Insanely.” I nod in agreement.

“It’s so crazy to me that it’s only been a year since I walked into that party with Char and saw Kai sitting on that couch. I can still see him in perfect detail, long legs stretched out in front of him, a look of indifference on his face. The way his eyes flared just slightly when they met mine the first time. It feels like a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then.”

“I know what you mean.” Maisie rolls to her side to face Lyric, who’s sitting up against the wall in between the two of us. “I mean, not about Kai but about last year feeling an eternity away. This time last year I had a slight obsession with Macallan.”

“Slight?” I bark out a laugh, earning me a narrowed glare from Mais.

“Fine. I was borderline insane over him. Now I daydream about running him over with a car. Or pushing him headfirst down a flight of stairs. Or—”

“We get the idea.” Lyric giggles. “Things change so quickly that sometimes it’s hard to comprehend.”

“That they do,” I find myself saying without really meaning to.

But they do. In the last couple of months, River and I have gone from texting each other to not speaking at all, to screwingeach other’s brains out every chance we get. Honestly, the whole thing has kind of given me whiplash, though I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

“Promise me something.” Lyric’s gaze bounces back and forth between the two of us. “Promise me that we won’t ever let anything come between us. That no matter how many things change, or how much time passes, we will still be this close years from now. That we will always be truthful with one another and will never let someone or something come between us.”

“I promise.” Maisie is the first to speak.

My heart thunders in my chest because what she’s asking me not to do, I’ve already done. I’ve already broken the trust between us. She just doesn’t know it yet, and the thought makes me physically ill.

“Yeah, me too.” I swallow back the bile that leaches to the inside of my throat like thick tar threatening to suffocate me.