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I quickly turned my face forward, hating that I’d seen it, and tried to tell myself that it didn’t even have to mean anything.

It was such a basic piece of clothing. Tiffany might have just taken it off right as soon as they got off school property, not wanting to be in her full uniform.

But I had a feeling the reason it was there was a little less innocent than what I was hoping for.

And it ate me up inside so much more than I could ever have imagined.

And the feeling only worsened when Sebastian pulled into his driveway and I saw the girl herself sitting on his front step, with her chin propped up in her hands like she’d been waiting forever.

Her head popped up as Sebastian got out of the car and she stood carefully, smoothing down her brown hair as she did.

She looked like she was planning to run straight into his arms until she noticed me get out of the car too and her smile immediately dimmed.

“Oh. Nellie. You’re here too.”

“That I am,” I said, avoiding her eyes. “Thanks for the ride, Sebastian.”

He just nodded, but he kept his eyes on Tiffany in front of him, probably trying to assess how upset she was. I was guessing very .

“I’ll see you later,” I told him. I smiled at Tiffany and said, “It was nice seeing you again.”

I walked away slowly, eyeing them and wondering what they were going to talk about once I was gone.

My curiosity got the better of me and when I stepped inside, I didn’t close the front door all the way, so I could continue to watch them.

Was it wrong of me to spy? Probably. But in my defence, I was almost positive they were going to talk about me and I had to know what it was about.

Tiffany whirled on him as soon as she thought I was gone. “I thought you were picking up Ainsley, not some random girl.”

“Ainsley’s dance class goes for longer,” Sebastian said. He went to step past her like he wanted to go inside, but she moved to stay in his way. For once, I was actually thankful for her, because if they went inside, I wouldn’t have been able to keep listening.

Tiffany crossed her arms and scowled. “I want to hang out with you, not wait around while you chauffeur your neighbor .”

“Well, you didn’t tell me you were coming over today.”

She scoffed. “I’m your girlfriend. You should assume that I’m coming over.”

“I can’t read your mind, Tiff. Besides, I wasn’t just going to leave Nellie out in the cold. She texted me asking for a ride, so?—”

“Oh, she texted you, did she?” Tiffany snapped. “Well, you should have said no and told her to find her own friends to pick her up.”

“I am her friend,” Sebastian said. My jaw almost dropped at the words.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard Sebastian admit to being my friend.

My brother’s best friend, sure. The guy next door, absolutely.

But my friend? My friend, not Dean’s friend, not his friend’s little sister—I didn’t think I would ever hear those words out of his mouth.

If he said that in front of Dean, he would probably get punched.

“It was bad enough that we had to give her a ride this morning,” Tiffany said.

“We didn’t have to give her a ride,” Sebastian interrupted. “I offered to give her a ride because her brother couldn’t.”

Tiffany scoffed again. “Just let her take the bus.”

“She can’t take the bus home,” he said. “She has swim practice after school. Same as Ainsley.”

“Then let her own brother pick her up! Why are you acting like you’re her brother too or something? It’s so weird.”

“What’s weird about it? I told you, she’s basically part of my family.”

And there were the words that I was dreading to hear.

Because I didn’t want to be basically his sister.

I didn’t want to be in the same category as Ainsley.

I wanted him to be my friend, the way that he had said it.

But now I was realizing why I was so surprised at the words: because I wasn’t his friend.

We had never been anything close to friends, and the fact that he saw me as a sister only confirmed that.

“She’s not?—”

“She’s the same age as Ainsley and Imogen. She’s on the same swim team as Ainsley. She’s around all the time. She lives next door. I’m not going to tell her no, and if that’s going to be a problem, then maybe this won’t work out.”

Sebastian and Tiffany had broken up so many times that I couldn’t even count it on one hand, so I wouldn’t have been surprised if she said yes right then.

I would have preferred it, in fact, because it might give me the chance to talk to Sebastian about what happened on Friday night without worrying about how his girlfriend would feel about it.

But to my surprise, she asked in a hurt voice, “You want to break up with me over this? You want to break up with me over Nellie ?”

“Her name’s Nora,” he said, which was pretty much the last thing I expected him to say given that he exclusively called me Nellie.

“And I’m not breaking up with you over her.

If you decide you want to break up, it’ll be over the fact that you’re too jealous to see that I can be a nice guy to my best friend’s little sister. ”

She scoffed again and turned away from him. “Such a pushover, Sebastian.”

“Am I?” he asked, sounding amused.

“She’s just using you. You can’t see it. She’s putting on this woe is me look, making you drive her around everywhere, making you act like her brother because her brother’s too stupid to?—”

“Don’t say anything about Dean,” Sebastian said. “He has a lot going on too.”

I wondered what he meant by that. I figured Dean wasn’t picking me up out of laziness, but was there some other reason I didn’t know about? Or was he just referring to everything going on in our family?

“So do you!” Tiffany snapped, putting her hands on his shoulders. She almost looked like she was going to try to shake some sense into him. “With how much you have going on in your family, do you really have time to take care of somebody else’s?”

The words were like a dagger to my heart.

I quickly stepped back and closed the door, not wanting to hear, not even bothering to listen for his response.

It didn’t matter what he said. The words were out there, and I wouldn’t be able to forget them.

Do you really have time to take care of somebody else’s family?

It hadn’t even occurred to me when I texted Sebastian today what I was pulling him away from.

I hadn’t thought about how much he probably already had to do today.

I knew that he had to drive Ainsley around, but what else?

Did he have to drive Imogen around too? Did he need to do errands for his mom or help Lavender with her car?

He probably barely had time for himself, and I’d gone and taken away what little time he did have.

And who was I to be annoyed with Tiffany for wanting to spend time with her own boyfriend?

They probably got no time together, with Sebastian running around ragged for everybody else.

And then here I was, forcefully taking up even more of his time. I was a terrible person.

I chucked my bag on my bedroom floor, ready to jump face first onto my bed and stay there until dinner, but my curiosity got the best of me a second time. From my window up here, I wouldn’t be able to hear what Sebastian and Tiffany were talking about, but I could see them.

So I walked over to my window to look out.

Even though they had just been fighting minutes ago, Sebastian and Tiff were now fully making out on his front porch.

My lip curled in disgust and I turned away from the window again to jump on my bed like I’d planned.

At least I knew that even if I caused an argument between them, they’d already made up.

But that also meant that Sebastian definitely agreed with her about what she said about taking care of somebody else’s family.

I’d only asked Sebastian for a ride because he’d driven me home on Friday and to school this morning, so it didn’t feel like too big of a favor.

But maybe I shouldn’t do that anymore. I wouldn’t do it again.

I would find some other way, even if it meant having to walk home after swim practice (which would definitely kill my muscles).

No matter what I had to do, I wouldn’t ask Sebastian Novak for another favor again.