Flip puts his arm around me. “Tally is my date.”
“Sh—oot. Right. I saw that and thought maybe it was fake news.”
Rix appears at my side. “Tally!” She hugs me. “Let’s get you a drink.”
She guides me away, toward the bar, dropping her voice to a whisper. “What the hell just happened there?”
“One of the coaches asked if I was Brody’s date.”
“Oh, God.” She squeezes my arm. “Are you okay?”
I bite my lips together.
“Do we need to find a quiet space so you can have some feelings about people being obtuse?”
I blow out a breath. “I get why he made that mistake.”
“Doesn’t make it less awkward. Let Flip deal with it.” She rubs my back. “I know it’s not easy right now. You’re staying off social media?”
“I’m staying off social media,” I echo.
“Good.” We reach the bar.
“But I have two younger siblings,” I add.
She wrinkles her nose. “And they are not.”
“Nope.”
Rix orders two margaritas. I was going to stick with soda because I have dance practice tomorrow, and I don’t want to end up dehydrated, but if this is how the night is going to go, tequila might be necessary.
“How are your parents handling things?”
“Mom is stressing but trying to be supportive. My dad is…letting me live my life, I guess?”
She nods. “How are people on campus?”
“Have you talked to Essie?” I prop my arm on the bar top.
Rix blinks at me, and I blink back.
“So that’s a yes,” I confirm.
“I know what it was like when my brother was in the thick of things and people would say stuff to me that was super cringe. And then when I started dating Tristan…” She sighs. “It will calm down, I promise.”
“Please don’t say anything to Phillip.”
“Talls, he knows what’s going on. You don’t have to pretendit’s not hard. Please tell me your Tilton friends have your back like you had Cammie’s back in first year.”
“They’re awesome. And Fee kind of gets it because of Roman and Lexi, and Cammie understands because of Chase, and Brody is Brody. So yeah. I have their support. I don’t want Flip to think this is too much for me.”
Her expression turns empathetic, and she squeezes my arm. “It’s okay if there are moments when it is. Just go to him when it’s like that. He needs that from you. He can’t protect you from all the idiots, but he can be there when you’re struggling, so please let him.”
Flip approaches, expression remorseful. “I’m so sorry about that. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. It’s going to happen, right?” I force a smile. “He’s not the first person to think Brody and I were a thing.”
Flip frowns. “Have you been a thing?”
