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It’s early enough that my parents haven’t left for the festival yet when I get back to their place. I let myself in, hoping I can get upstairs and into the shower before they see me, but of course my mom is already sitting in the living room, going over things for the next couple of days of the festival.

“Brynn, is that you?” she calls.

I cringe, but step into the doorway. “Yeah, it’s me. I was just going to go get ready.”

Dad comes out of the kitchen, a cup of coffee in his hand. “You didn’t come home last night,” he says.

Neither of them seem like they’ve heard anything yet, which makes sense. Gossip might spread like wildfire through a small town like this, but it’s still early, and it’s not like Catherine would come to their house to tell them personally.

I paste on what I hope is a convincing smile. “Oh yeah, I was at Marnie’s yesterday, after the festival. We got to talking, and it got late before I realized it. I just decided to crash at her place instead of driving back here in the dark.”

It’s a flimsy excuse at best.

Mom frowns, tilting her head to look at me. “Since when does driving in the dark bother you?”

“It doesn’t. It’s just been a while, and I didn’t want to risk it.”

They look at each other, but it’s not like they can accuse me of anything. I can tell they still have questions, so I tell them I want to go shower and get changed before the festival gets going, and they let me escape upstairs.

In the shower I try to push away the feeling of anxiety that wants to claw its way up my throat, washing quickly. It doesn’t really help, but I don’t have time to dwell on any of it.

I promised my parents I would man one of the multiple booths the family has at the festival today, so I have to get going. It’s the last thing I want to do now, when I would rather be hiding away until this blows over, but I can’t get out of it without explaining why. So I have to go be in public.

At first, things go well. I smile and answer questions. I sign a couple of autographs from tourists who recognize me. No one says anything or looks at me in a way that makes me think they know something about me they shouldn’t. When it gets past lunch and no one’s said anything, I start to think that maybe Catherine has learned to keep things to herself and maybe no one knows.

But then a group passes by and one of them does a double take when he sees me. It seems like the usual thing at first, that he’s recognized me and is double checking to make sure he’s not seeing things, but then he leans in and whispers something to another member of the group.

They giggle and keep walking.

It’s weird, and it puts me on alert. Then I realize that it’s not just them. People are looking at me. A lot of people. There’s more whispering, more giggles, more people giving me the side eye.

My stomach churns, and I try to breathe through it.

My phone rings in my pocket, and I pull it out to see Marnie calling.

“Marnie?” I ask when I answer.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” is the first thing she says.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s all over town that Catherine Peters caught you in bed with two guys this morning.”

My stomach drops and my blood goes cold. “What? Who did you hear that from?”

“The mailman,” she says. “Is that true?”

“I…” What am I supposed to say? “Oh god.”

“Hey,” Marnie says, her voice dropping lower. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re an adult, you can do whatever you want. I just called to make sure you’re okay. The news is spreading pretty fast. You know how things go around here.”

“Yeah. I know. I… I don’t know. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“If you need anything, let me know, okay? If you want to come hide out here, you can. I’ll charge you the low fee of helping to change Isaac’s diapers sometimes, but you know you have a safe place here, right?”

“Thanks, Marnie.” Her support does mean a lot to me, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is so far out of my control.

This morning Callan said that it’s not like I live here anymore, but what if this doesn’t stop at the boundaries of Hope Falls? Can I handle this becoming gossip not just here, but in a broader sense too? There’s nothing I can do to put the toothpaste back in the tube, so to speak. I can’t stop this.