Gabi and I still haven’t acknowledged each other. How has Tati missed the disgust that’s thickened the air? And why hasn’t she askedmewhere Gabi’s been lately? She could have at any time. Instead, she’s chosen to interrogate my former best friend while our frozen whole-wheat waffles thaw.
“Oh, Piper and I don’t hang out anymore,” Gabi says.
If I could disappear through the floor, I would. At least then I wouldn’t have to watch my sister’s expression cloud with confusion.
She looks from Gabi to me, then back again. “I don’t understand.”
Try to keep up, Tati.
“We’re not friends anymore,” Gabi says flatly. “Piper didn’t tell you?”
My sister glowers. “No. She did not.”
“Okay,” I say, giving Tati a push toward the exit. “Let’s talk in the car.”
She moves reluctantly toward the automatic doors. Just a few more feet and—
“She kissed my boyfriend,” Gabi calls, halting Tati in her tracks.
Gabi’s not a timid girl, but she’s diplomatic. It’s not like her to cause a scene in the neighborhood market, but now that Maggie and Tyson have disappeared down the baking aisle, she’s dropped her shield and picked up a sword.
Tati walks back to her. “When?”
“A couple of weeks ago. At my house. In myroom.”
My stomach churns. Hell would be preferable to this.
Tati sputters. “Why would she do that?”
“She was drunk,” Gabi says, like,Isn’t she always?“Damon said she was all over him.”
“Piper,” Tati chides, shaking her head.
I’m barely holding back a cascade of tears, but I can’tnotspeak up. “That isn’t what happened,” I say.
Gabi’s gaze clashes with mine. “You’re calling Damon a liar?”
“Yes,” I say, squaring up to her.
Gabi’s bullshit detector is well calibrated. She values authenticity and despises deception, and she’s stubborn as hell. But last year, she fell for Mitchel Damon, bad boy punk to her piano prodigy perfection. He’s loud and vulgar, a redneck and an asshole. Maggie and Byron hate him. But isn’t that the draw? He satiates Gabi’s defiant streak.
“What Damon told you? That is not how it went down.”
She crosses her arms. “Whatever, Piper.”
“It’snot. If you’d let me explain—”
Shaking her head, she says, “I don’t need your explanations—not this time. I saw you with him. I’ve never felt so betrayed—”
Enough!
I turn and walk out of Publix.
Gabi and I hit a rough spot a few months back, over spring break. I missed her biggest recital of the season to hook up with a tourist whose name has already slipped my mind. The fight was my fault; I selfishly put a boy before her and lied to cover my ass, telling her Tati wouldn’t let me go to the recital. Tati shot holes through my story not two days later, and Gabi confronted me. When I came clean, it was heart-wrenchingly obvious that she was more disappointed by my dishonesty than the fact that I’d missed the recital. I swore I’d never do anything to make her doubt me again.
By the time she walked in on Damon and me at that party, I had already surrendered. She’d missed my confusion, his maneuvering, my bartering, his hushing. She didn’t hear me trying to plead my way out of that bedroom. She didn’t see me grapplingwith him, someone who was quicker and stronger and much more sober than me.
She took his word over mine.
