I took a deep breath before replying. “I lied to you, and I’m sorry about that. It’s just… it’s not really something I want to drop in a first conversation,” I said. “Or even a second one, to be honest,” I added with a weak, humorless laugh which I hoped would ease the awkward tension.
No one laughed. They just stared.
“My sister was a student here for a while,” I went on. “But… she died.”
The confusion on my new friends’ faces instantly turned to sympathy.
“Oh my god, babe, I’m so sorry!” Cherry said, inching closer to me. “I had no idea.”
Jeremiah reached over to pat my shoulder. “I totally understand why you didn’t want to bring it up. I’m sorry for making you talk about it.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s not your fault,” I murmured. A lump had formed in my throat. “I shouldn’t have lied to you.”
“What was your sister’s name?” Ginny asked, eyes flickering with a mix of compassion and curiosity. “We might’ve known her. Depending on when she was here, obviously.”
I swallowed hard. “Calista,” I said softly.
The change in the group was instantaneous, as if someone had dumped ice water over all of them. Cherry's hand froze on my arm, Ginny's eyes went wide, and Jeremiah's face drained of color. Even Dylan, who'd been so animated just seconds before, went completely still.
“Calista Hoffman?” Cherry said, voice barely above a whisper.
“Yes. Did you know her?”
“Knowher?” Cherry stared at me for a beat, mouth hanging open. Her eyes were shimmering with tears now. “Violet… Cal was my best friend.”
“We were all friends with her,” Jeremiah added. “She met Cherry in a theater tech class in freshman year, and Cherry introduced her to Dyl and Ginny. Then me, once Dyl and I started dating.”
My eyes widened, darting between the four of them. “You really all knew her?”
“Yes,” Ginny said. “I honestly can’t believe it. What a crazy coincidence.”
“I never would’ve guessed it,” Dylan added, staring at me with wonderment. “You two look nothing alike. Apart from—”
“The eyes,” Jeremiah cut in. “Iknewthere was something familiar about you when we met, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together before now,” Cherry said, head slightly shaking. “She must’ve mentioned her sister to me a hundred times, and she always said the name ‘Vee’. But I should’ve known it was a nickname for something else. I just… I guess I never thought to ask.”
I swallowed another lump in my throat. “How come I didn’t meet any of you at the funeral?”
“Because your family held it in California,” Jeremiah said, guilt streaking across his face. “We tried to pool our money to get enough together for plane tickets and accommodation, but… well, let’s just say we’re not the standard Blackthorne students.”
“We don’t have huge trust funds or family fortunes to dip into,” Dylan clarified. He waved a hand around the auditorium. “I know it probably looks like we do, given all this extravagance, but the theater and all its events are funded by rich patrons. Not us.”
“Oh.”
“We had a memorial service for Cal here,” Ginny said softly. “Seeing as we couldn’t make it to the proper funeral. But believe me, we really wanted to go. So much.”
“I get it,” I said, voice coming out all choked up. I wiped a tear from under my left eye and spoke up again. “I just wish Cal and I had talked more about her friends when we did our catchup calls, so I could’ve known who you were before I came here. But meeting you all like this anyway… it feels like kismet.”
“It totally is!” Jeremiah replied. “Literally theonetime I don’t watch where I’m walking, and I bump right intoyou.It’s amazing.”
I briefly closed my eyes, recalling the names I’d seen in Calista’s messages every time I went through her phone in the hope of finding answers.
“She had nicknames for you, didn’t she?” I asked, opening my eyes again. “Jeremiah, you were ‘Jer’. And Dylan… youmust’ve been ‘Pickle’. I guess it was a joke about dill pickles sounding like Dyl?”
Dylan grinned. “Yeah.”
I looked at Cherry. “There was a contact in her phone saved as ‘C’ with a cherry emoji and heart next to it. That must’ve been you,” I said before turning my attention to Ginny. “And, um… were you Jinx?”
