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SEBASTIAN: …Come on How bad could it be?ME: The last time you said that toto you so you know the truth That’s hardly a secret You just won’t listenME: I’ve moved onSEBASTIAN: No you haven’t If you had, you wouldn’t be like this You’re not over it, Holley, and neither am II paused at that He wasn’t over it? How could he possibly not be over it? He wasn’t the one who’d been hurt that night He’d stayed in town for all of a week before he’d gone off for some junior baseball tourna camp

He hadn’t tried thenME: You didn’t try to explain it then Why not?SEBASTIAN: My injury has put a lot of things into perspective I’er than that We don’t know You’ve always been a part ofin White Peak and not having you aroundME: Iine it, Sebastian You’ve been here for a feeeks already and never triedSEBASTIAN: I tried Just couldn’t get the balls to walk through the door, to be honestME: That’s ridiculousSEBASTIAN: You’re right It is But so is all thisME: I just don’t see what good it does to bring up the pastSEBASTIAN: Well then figure it out You’re the one living in itOuch

That one stung Not because it was untrue but because… he was right

Annoyingly so

I’d always hated thatME: Fair enoughSEBASTIAN: Holley, please Coet separate rooive htI was so going to regret thisME: FineSEBASTIAN: Really?ME: Yes, fine I’ll do it But I’m only there as your friend as far as everyone is concerned I’ stupid like thatSEBASTIAN: You won’t have toME: And definitely our own roomsSEBASTIAN: Definitely our own roo and book yoursME: I’o awaySEBASTIAN: Now that I have your nuer e face emojis, and I tossed my phone onto the sofa next to me It landed screen down, thank God, and I looked back at my half-eaten dinner

I pushed sohetti around the plate What had I done? That hadn’t been why I’d texted hiht was ree to let him tell me what had really happened

So asthe truth?

I knehat happened

We’d gone together to proain for a while Secretly, I’d planned to adht toward the end of the night when I was gearing up to do it, I’d gone looking for hih school life hell

You know the one We all had her in our past The pretty, popular, out-of-your-league girl who only liked you if you could do her homework for her, and even then, her friendship came with thinly veiled disapproval

Except Iris had never given me any kind of friendship Seb and I had always been the stereotypical jock-slash-nerd pairing, but we’d only been friends She’d long hated how close I was to him and told everyone very loudly it should have been her

At prootten her wish, and my heart had broken into a thousand pieces

Of all the girls I could have found hi, it was her

So I knehat happened I didn’t knohy I needed to relive that night from his point of view, unless—

Unless there was another point of view

I froze

Was there so I’d never let him actually tell me because I was too wrapped up in myself?

I droppedit clatter to the plate, and pushed the plate away

Son of a biscuit“That would make sense,” Ivy said as I set a cup of hot cocoa down in front of her “I always thought there was soht It’s not like he’d ever shown any interest in Iris before”

I took a seat on the opposite end of the sofa and cradledHer apartan were one week away from move day Since Kinsley was back, I’d come over to help her pack up a bunch of stuff, but all we’d done was snuggle Tegan and eat our body weights in chips and salsa