I nodded, even though I didn't believe it. Some betrayals were too big to forgive.
"I need to find Rosie," I said. "Tell her what's happening."
"Be careful," Maddox warned. "Aaron's watching you like a hawk."
I slipped back inside, scanning the crowd for Rosie. She'd moved to the kitchen, helping Ivy refill chip bowls.
Our eyes met across the room. I nodded toward the back door, our signal that we needed to talk privately.
She made an excuse to Ivy and slipped outside, joining me in the shadows at the side of the house.
"What's wrong?" she asked immediately as I wrapped my arms around her.
I told her everything. Sebastian's threat. Nova and Maddox's warning. The plan to expose us at practice tomorrow.
With each word, the color drained from her face.
"Tomorrow," she whispered. "He's going to tell everyone tomorrow."
"Unless we tell Aaron first. Tonight."
"But the party..."
"I don't care about the party." I took her hands. "Rosie, we're out of time. This is happening whether we're ready or not. At least this way, we control how Aaron finds out."
“And what about the pictures?” she asked, voice small and scared. “Does he really have pictures?”
“I don’t know, but I will find out. The most important thing is that we tell Aaron, and I’ll deal with Sebastian after,” I said, hugging her closer.
She nodded slowly, tears forming in her eyes. "Okay. Okay, let's do it. Let's tell him."
"Are you sure?"
"No. But we don't have a choice anymore." She squeezed my hands. "Together, right? We tell him together."
"Together," I agreed, even though I wanted to tell her to hide, to let me take all of Aaron's anger alone.
We walked back inside, hand in hand for the first time in public. A few people noticed, did double-takes, but we didn't stop.
Aaron was in the living room, now talking to Max. When he saw us approaching, saw our joined hands, his smile faded as realization dawned on him.
"Aaron," I said, my voice steady despite my racing heart. "We need to talk. Somewhere private."
His eyes moved from our hands to my face, then to Rosie's. Iwatched understanding dawn, watched his expression shift from confusion to realization to fury.
"Yeah," he said quietly, his voice dangerously calm. "I think we do."
The party continued around us, but it felt like we were in a bubble. Just the three of us and the secret that was about to blow everything apart.
Aaron led us to Max's room, the only place in the house that had a lock. He closed the door behind us and turned to face us.
"How long?" he asked, his voice still too calm.
"Since September," I admitted. "Officially since September. But we've had feelings for longer."
"Months." Aaron's jaw clenched. "You've been lying to me for months."
"We wanted to tell you," Rosie said, her voice small. "We were going to tell you after Westpoint..."
