“You have to.”
“Are you insane?”I asked. “You heard what she said she’ll do.”
Tommy looked at me as if I were missing something obvious. “Of course she won’t say that to him. She was bluffing, and even if she wasn’t, she’ll look like a liar if you tell Will that was her plan before he confronts her. That’s why she threatened you. She knows he’ll believe you. You’re hissister.Why wouldn’t he?”
He gave me a long look. “Come on, Rose. You have to tell him. He just gave her a four-hundred-dollar necklace. He has a right to know what she did. To him and to you.”
It made so much sense. I couldn’t believe I had spent all this time worrying that Will wouldn’t believe me. How couldn’t he? If I laid it all out like that.
“Where were you a week ago when I was stressing over this?” I said to Tommy, with a hint of a smile.
He winked. “You didn’t ask.”
Just then the doors to the restaurant opened, and Will strode out in his navy suit. The graduation robe had long since been ditched but he still wore his cap, showing it off proudly.
“Hello, fellow Dearling spawn,” he said as he approached. He looked so happy that it made me feel sick again. “It’s going to be about a fifteen-minute wait or so. I texted Alex already—they got stuck in the traffic leaving the fairgrounds.”
Tommy gave me a knowing look to say,Here’s your window.He propped Hazel back up on his hip. “I’m going to take this little gremlin to Mom.” He strode off inside, leaving Will and me alone.
“This feels so weird,” Will said, moving his tassel from one side of the hat to the other. “So adult,you know?” He shimmied his shoulders, seemingly laughing at the idea of him being an adult.
I took a deep breath. Things were about to get a lot more grown-up. “Will, can I tell you something important?”
Will looked confused. He cautiously nodded his head. “Do you not like Longhorn? I know you choked on a mozzarella stick here that one time, but it’s been years.” He chuckled.
I waved him off. “It’s about Alex.”
“Did she not like the necklace?” he asked, his face going serious. “I can return it—”
This was going to be worse than I imagined. “It’s not the necklace, Will. I have to tell you something really bad.” I took a deep breath. “When we went to that party last weekend? Well, at one point I needed to pee. Likereallybad. Bad enough that I couldn’t wait in line, so I went into the woods.” Another deep breath. “I heard this moaning. I was still tipsy at that point but not drunk anymore.” Will needed to understand that I knew what I had seen.
“Tipsy, not drunk. Got it,” he said, not registering the gravity of what I was saying.
“And I saw these two people …” I felt my neck get hot. This was humiliating. I shouldn’t have to talk about this with my older brother. “Having sex against a tree.”
Now Will looked embarrassed too. He glanced down and scratched at his cap. “I don’t know if I’m the best person to talk about this with, Rosie …” Hefaltered, looking back inside the restaurant. I realized he thought I was going to ask him something about sex. I shook my head.
“You don’t understand, Will. It was Alex. She was having sex with someone else.”
Will’s hand dropped to his side, his brow furrowing.“What?”
“Alex was having sex with someone in the woods,” I repeated. “At that party.”
I watched the confusion drift across my brother’s face and switch to dread. “I don’t understand. You’re saying she cheated on me at that party?”
I gave a small nod.
“With who?” His eyes were big, his forehead pulled tight as he waited for an answer. He didn’t look like an adult at all now. He looked so young, like he could be my age.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know,” I said miserably. “I didn’t see his face. His back was to me.”
Will gulped. “Well, if you couldn’t see, how do you know it was Alex?”
“She looked right at me, Will. She was facing me, holding on to that guy.” The words tumbled out of my mouth. “She chased after me when they were … done.”
Will let out a low breath. He reached for the bench, taking a seat, looking like his entire world had come apart in front of him. His eyes stared forward, unblinking. He was silent for almost a full minute before he turned back to me.
“Are yousure?” he asked.
