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I looked down at it wondering what he’d done to defile it, too. If he’d somehow managed to stick it up his ass, I hoped it’d hurt him. I turned it off before I could read any of the horrible things on it that I’d missed.

“Come on,” Sarah muttered, hauling me away to the sound of their laughter.

She pulled me around corners and down halls until we were in front of my lockers, where Lacey was waiting. “Oh my God, are you okay?”

It took me a second to realize she was worried about me. This was not how this was supposed to work. Although I was worried about me too—why had my powers deserted me? Where had they gone?

“You’re okay, right?” Lacey repeated.

“Yeah,” I lied.

“Talk in the car,” Sarah said, pushing us both along. “It’s not safe here.”

That was an understatement.

“What about you?” Lacey asked her.

“Ryan’s my ride. I’ll go out to practice like always. I’ll be fine.”

“You’re sure?” I asked.

“It ain’t Thanksgiving yet,” she said. “Go,” she commanded.

We did as we were told, looking nervously over our shoulders.

“What happened in there?” I asked Lacey once we were safe outside.

“Sarah found me while I was waiting for you, getting worried. She told me to stay put and went searching.” Her hand found mine. We practically ran to her car, and when we got inside she locked the doors. “What happened?”

I told her, and when I got to me facing Mason down in the hall she smacked my shoulder. “You were supposed to play it safe today, Jessie!”

“I know—but I got distracted. The west hall bathroom—in the last stall.” I wished I had had my phone, so I could’ve taken a picture. “Someone wrote on it—Danny is.”

“Dannyis,” she repeated, leaving the rest of the sentence left unsaid. “It’s new?”

“Has to be. And there’s more comments underneath. Saying that they know, that everyone knows.”

“About me?” her voice rose in panic and I spoke quickly.

“No no no. About him.” I was starting to calm down, trying to be rational. “We knew there were others. This is just another confirmation.”

“And to think how alone I’ve felt, ever since it happened.” She bit her lower lip. I was watching my best friend find out she was part of a not-very exclusive club. “I just can’t believe he’s gotten away with it for so long.”

“The entire school’s behind him. And he doesn’t even have to do his own bullying—Mason’s his fucking lapdog.”

“But what if one of them had tried? What if they’d stopped him before him and me?” She turned to face the steering wheel, clenching it in her hands. “I didn’t have to—it could’ve been different.”

“Hey—hey hey hey—” I said, unsure what I’d follow it up with, just trying to catch her before she spiraled. “It could’ve, but it wasn’t,” I said gently. “There’s no Santa Claus, and there are no alternate time-lines.” If there were, a different mom or a better dad would’ve totally manifested inside my closet or under my bed by now. “We can’t change the past. All we get is what we have right here.”

“And the future.”

My mythical college-future that I’d been holding onto for so long. “Sure. That too.”

She took a few more turns in pensive silence. “He’s already in at State, you know.”

“Of course he is,” I said with heavy sarcasm. A year from now I’d have to fill out embarrassing forms with my mother’s income or lack thereof on them, while all Danny had to do was smack astupid ball. And if I was lucky, I might get into the same college as him. Hooray.

“How would anyone there know?” Lacey said, mostly to herself.