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Around her, her friends celebrated like they had all won a round of MarioKart, and Avery sent a sheepishly apologetic look at the server who stopped by to take her order. She got her usual—short stack of pancakes, side of scrambled eggs and sausage—and waited for them to settle. “So you spent the night?” Tommy asked, elbows on the table.

“Was it your first time?” Grace asked. “Or had you guys, you know, before?”

“Oh my God, Grace, that is none of your damn business,” Harper interrupted, and then looked at Avery. “Unless, you know, you want to share.”

“I’ll just say we had a lot of fun,” Avery said as primly as she could manage, given that her response created another burst of celebration from their friends.

“God, I am so glad you guys finally figured your shit out. I was losing my damn mind,” Tommy said, stuffing his cheeks with an enormous bite of breakfast burrito.

“Especially Theo,” Harper added.

“Why him specifically?” Avery asked, more focused on pouring a metric ton of maple syrup on her pancakes than on her friends’ interest in her love life.

“He’s only had a thing for you for forever,” Grace said.

“Yeah. For years,” Harper confirmed. “And Tommy totally knows exactly how long, don’t you?”

Tommy was suddenly very interested in his plate. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Grace snorted. “Yes, you fucking do. You’re being weird as hell right now. And last night didn’t you say Theo had told you something big this summer?”

Tommy’s eyes widened. “I said that?” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Fuck, I was drunker than I thought.”

“See?” Harper said. “He knows how long it’s been, don’t you?”

“You guys are good, right? Like, you’ve worked out whatever it was between you two that kept you pretending you weren’t in love?” Tommy asked.

Avery blinked at the word love but decided to chalk it up to Tommy’s well-known proclivity for hyperbole. “Yeah, of course,” she said with a confidence that wasn’t entirely honest.

“And you’ve—talked? About everything?” Tommy clarified.

“Yeah, for sure,” Avery said, because, well, she and Theo had talked. That much wasn’t a lie, but the way her heart was pounding told her that Theo had held back something.

“Then yeah, obviously, Theo’s been in love with her since like, homecoming. At least.”

Avery’s heart shuddered to a stop. “Sorry, what?”

Tommy looked at her, puzzled, and then his face went white. “But you said—no, never mind. Nothing. I said nothing. Forget it.”

“No, I heard you,” Avery said.

“Then, uh, what’s wrong?” he asked with a look of someone who was about to be executed.

Avery scanned her friends. Tommy looked worried, Grace seemed oddly preoccupied by getting the butter exactly right on her waffles, and Harper looked like she was considering drowning herself in her coffee. She knew them way too well for this trick to work, and they had to know that too. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I didn’t want to break his confidence,” Tommy protested.

“You just did,” Avery replied.

“She’s got a point,” Grace told her waffles.

Tommy took a deep, steadying breath. “Technically, under duress, and because I thought you knew, okay? And before I say anything else, you have to understand, Theo swore me to secrecy.”

“This is not inspiring a lot of confidence,” Avery said.

Tommy considered her for a moment. “Hang on,” he said, and took two enormous bites. “I’m starving, okay? Don’t judge,” he said as he chewed.

“Judging a little,” Grace muttered.