They didn’t answer.
They didn’t have to.
Because I already knew.
I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. The sun-warmed stone made my legs sweat, but maybe if I roasted my ass enough, I’d just burn up.
Coop sat next to me and sighed. Bubba stood off to the side, popping open another bottle of beer. The one he’d left next to mebegan to sweat. I could hear the music drifting around the side of the house, something fast and upbeat, a total contrast to the black pit in my stomach.
The silence was heavier now. Not just uncomfortable, butweighted. All we needed was someone to acknowledge the blast radius.
I was the first to crack.
“I said it out loud.”
Coop didn’t look up, but I could see his jaw clench. Bubba let out a slow breath and finally walked over, picked up the bottle next to me and pressed it into my hand. I closed my fingers around it reflexively.
“I said it,” I repeated, quieter. “Iactuallysaid it. In front of everyone.”
Bubba rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “At least you didn’tshoutit?”
That almost made me laugh. Another almost.
Instead, I winced. Hard. The moment replayed in my head like a glitchy projector, overexposed, off-kilter, all sharp edges.She loved me first.You touched her.Fucked her. I hadn’t just lost it. I’d detonated.
The word hung in the back of my brain now, echoing:fucked. In public. At a party. In front of our entire class, half the swim team, and probably some freshman with a TikTok account.
My stomach turned. “Shit.”
“Yeah,” Coop said. “You, uh… kinda announced it.”
I gritted my teeth. “God.”
Bubba finally looked at me, steady and unflinching. “You didn’t just say it, man. Yougave it to them. Every guy in that backyard who’s been wondering what went down between them just got their answer. Fromyou. Not her. Not him.”
I swallowed hard.
“Now she has to walk back into that patio,” Bubba went on, “and every single person out there is gonna know something that was never supposed to be public.”
“Worse,” Coop added. “They’re gonnatalkabout it. Twist it. Use it.”
I covered my face with both hands and groaned into my palms. “Jesus Christ. I didn’t even think—I just?—”
“Yeah,” Bubba said quietly. “That’s the problem.”
It hit like a punch to the throat. Frankie’s face flashed in my memory, right before she walked off with Rachel. That high, brittle smile. The tight grip on her sarong. The way she never once looked my way. And now?
Now I’d made it worse.
No—not worse.Unfixable.
“She’s gonna hate me.”
Neither of them contradicted me.
Coop shifted, exhaling hard. “I don’t think she hated you before.”
Great. “And now?”
