“You went viral!” she laughs, squeezing me tighter.
I blink at her, utterly lost. “Huh?”
Sam drops into a chair and pulls Maggie onto his lap. “You’re all over the web, Valerié.”
Maggie smacks the back of his neck. He giggles, not bothered in the least. “Oh, you know I love when you do that, Evangeline.”
She ignores him and turns her eyes on me. A small smile plays on her lips. “What Nova’s trying to say is that your latest YouTube video blew up. Instagram’s full of people resharing it. You’re in the top five hashtags on TikTok. Did you even open Instagram today?”
“I—no. I don’t even have notifications on.”
Nova wriggles down from my lap, opens Instagram on her phone, and pulls up my profile. My stomach lurches. I only had three hundred and fifty followers before.
But now they’re forty-thousand. It’s impossible.
I whip my head toward Sam. “I told you not to do anything.”
He throws his hands up. “And I didn’t! Some influencer who reacts to covers found your video ofBreakaway. Her video blew up, and the web went insane. People started hunting you down. A lot of them traced you back through us. And being friends withme, Samuel Derek Wilson, doesn’t exactly keep you invisible, Vincent.”
It’s the first time in seven months he’s called me by my real name.
“This has been going on for days,” Sam continues. “We all kept quiet because we didn’t know how you’d react. Everyone’s gone private on socials, especially Nova, because people pulled photos and clips of you from her accounts to make edits. Even old stuff of you when you were younger.”
Max shoves his phone toward me—an edit of me paired with an Ariana Grande track.
“We tried to contain it,” he says. “But it’s impossible. Once it’s out there, it’s out there. And your YouTube covers? They’re blowing up too.”
Will scrolls through his phone and shows me the numbers of my cover ofIn Bloomby Nirvana. Fifteen thousand views. I can barely breathe.
Then Nova seizes my hands again, spinning me like a kid. “Did you see? I knew it!”
“You were right, baby!” The word slips out before I can stop it.
I laugh with her, lift her, spin her in wide circles. My chest feels like it might explode. Adrenaline surges hot and dizzy, andI don’t even realize what I’ve called her until I set her down—until I catch Steven’s eyes on us and guilt slams into me.
Nova notices his eyes on us too, freezing when her gaze locks with his and the realization burns across her face. We both jerk back like guilty kids caught red-handed.
If the others noticed, they’re merciful enough to pretend otherwise.
Aurora clears her throat, breaking the silence. “Um... so, now what?”
“Now we step up,” Sam says, heading to the fridge. “Better quality, more frequent uploads.”
He leans down to whisper something in Maggie’s ear. She just nods, giving his hand a fleeting caress that doesn’t go unnoticed by anyone—least of all Sam, who walks to the counter as if he’s floating a foot above the ground.
He comes back to the table with a bunch of random drinks for everyone, but hands Maggie the only apricot juice carton he grabbed first.
I’m cracking a Cherry Coke when my phone buzzes with a text from my father. I reply quickly, glance at the time, and look at Steven. “Did you take your meds yet?”
He shakes his head, cracks open a regular Coke. “Later.”
“The doctor said eight sharp. Not before. Not after,” I press, feeling eyes shift toward us.
Steven stiffens. “One night won’t kill me, V.” His voice tightens, sharp with restraint.
I shut my mouth. But Nova doesn’t. “You should listen to the doctor, Steve,” she says gently. “Your health depends on it. You can’t—”
His fists clench. His jaw works. And then he snaps.
