Crying hot tears now, I sink down, squatting on the kitchen floor with my chin to my chest. She stands over me, offering no comfort, patronizing as usual.
“Piper,” she says finally, and because I’m desperate to be looked after, I raise my gaze. But her tone is vicious. “You always do this. You say something ugly or do something stupid, and then you make this big production of falling apart. But you don’t want to be comforted. You want to go on feeling sorry for yourself. You like believing the world is against you, so you push people until they break. You do it with me, and you probably didit with Henry. You sure as shit did it with Gabi. “
I straighten. I’m done letting Damon’s actions make me look selfish and slutty. “I didn’t push Gabi, and I didn’t break her. I didn’t kiss her boyfriend, either. If you’d asked me what actually happened, I would’ve told you: Damon kissed me.”
Tati huffs.
I barrel on. “He trapped me in Gabi’s room and got in my face. He touched me. I’d been drinking, yeah, but I told him to stop. I told him I didn’t want to be with him, that it’d crush Gabi, and that—” I trip over a sob, but I’m in too deep to stop now. “I told him he was hurting me. I told himno. If Gabi hadn’t interrupted when she did…”
Tati gapes at me, her face horrifically pale. I’m humiliated under her stare, scarred by the memory I just unearthed from its dark hole so I could throw it in her face.
Hands shaking, chest heaving, I attempt to rebury it with shovels full of dirt and denial.
I wasn’t sure Tati would believe me.
I wasn’t sure anyone would believe me.
I think my sister believes me.
“Piper—”
“Don’t. You assumed the worst of me, same as Gabi.”
I shove past, ramming her shoulder with mine.
I hear her call after me, but I don’t turn back.
I go to my room, retrieve my phone from my bed, and open the Notes app. I copy the words I wrote for Gabi, then paste them into our text thread, the one that’s been unused for weeks. I stareat the blinking cursor for a long moment, and then, because Iamreckless and impulsive, because maybe Idowant to be miserable, I fire off the message.
Delivered, my phone assures me.
Later, when I’m sure Tati has left the kitchen for her room, I sneak down to the pool, hoping Henry will show. Hoping he’ll sense my need the way he has in the past.
He doesn’t.
For hours, I sit in the dark, alone.
Henry
I started readingDelphina and the Starlit Seathe night Piper and I ate pizza in her room.
When I got back to Dad’s apartment, he wasn’t home. Good thing, because I was riled up. I poured a soda, purposefully ignoring the clanking beer bottles stored along the shelves of the refrigerator door, then went to my room and pulled out the Kindle I rarely use.
Delphina’s an orphan, I learned that night.
Also,Starlit Seais one hell of a story.
I read until I finished. It was close to dawn when I downloaded the two sequels and dove intoDelphina and the Siren’s Secret, pushing on until I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
Saturday and Sunday were a blur of sleeping and reading. I barely spoke to my dad, but not for his lack of trying. I called Piper, though maybe I shouldn’t have. My questions felt forced, and her answers sounded clipped. I was sure that if I could see her, we could work things out. But she didn’t ask to meet up, soI didn’t push.
Sunday night, I feel a sudden compulsion to go down to the pool, like the water’s shouting up at me. But that’s silly, because I don’t feel like swimming, and if Piper was going down, she would’ve let me know.
I stay on the couch withDelphina and the Coral Crown, hoping Dad will burn the midnight oil at Blitz Brews.
He barrels into the apartment just before ten.
“What’s up?” he asks, shoving my legs over so he can flop down on the couch.
