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Theo: I know.

Tommy: Have you talked to Avery yet?

Theo: I have to get to class

Theo turned his phone to Do Not Disturb and stuffed it into his pocket. It was a shitty thing to do to Tommy, but he wasn’t ready to broach the Avery stuff. Sure, he’d lied to her, and he knew she had a rather inexplicable thing about lying—no one liked being lied to, but most people didn’t go scorched earth the way she did—but he’d thought their years of friendship would earn him at least the benefit of the doubt. Or a touch of forgiveness. But it didn’t, and quite honestly, that pissed him off. He wasn’t ready to make up with her, not just yet.

But by the time his class was over, his conscience was getting the better of him. Tommy was just being his friend, and it wasn’t Tommy’s fault—not really—that things with him and Avery had gotten so messed up. He didn’t forgive easily, but he also knew that holding a grudge against Tommy wasn’t fair.

Theo: Sorry about that, professor is strict about phones in class

And no I haven’t talked to Avery, and I’ll be honest, I don’t really want to

Theo waited for Tommy’s response, frowning. His Ancient Civ professor was pretty strict about phones—that much wasn’t a lie—so hopefully Tommy wouldn’t try to call him on it. No, it wasn’t why he stopped talking to Tommy earlier, but it was a reason.

Tommy: I don’t like it when you guys fight

It’s like Mom and Dad fighting, you know? Awkward and uncomfortable and we don’t want to pick a side because we love you both

Theo: Have you talked to her?

Theo regretted asking that the second he hit send. Everything about Avery twisted him up inside, and knowing more about how she was doing would probably only make him feel worse. But before he could tell Tommy Never mind, forget I asked, Tommy’s reply rolled in.

Tommy: She’s pretty pissed at us too.

So no, not yet.

Theo winced. He was probably at least partially at fault for Avery’s fight with their friends, although exactly how, he wasn’t sure. He could guess, though, and wondered what had happened to Avery to make her so draconian about lies. It wasn’t that Theo liked lying, or anything, but there was some utility to them sometimes—like when faking a relationship, for example. He could see the difference between that and what he’d kept from her, but her rage and hurt had felt all out of proportion, and when he was faced with that, he had just shut down. It was just all so screwed up, and he couldn’t figure out where to start fixing it, or if it even could be. Or if he even wanted to fix it—the fact that his years of friendship with her had meant nothing when faced with one face-saving lie hurt more than he could say.

Theo: I’m sorry

Tommy: Me too

Friends?

Theo cracked a smile. That was Tommy all right.

Theo: As if you could get rid of me that easily.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Avery

Avery might have been a nerd, but even she wasn’t so big a nerd as to look forward to finals. Thus, it was a bit of a surprise to discover what a relief it was to have something else to absorb her attention, even if that was the soul-crushing stress of her first semester of college finals.

The other surprise was how much she was coming to like Savannah. They had been perfectly cordial roommates for the first few months, and they had agreed to work together on their Poli Sci project more out of convenience than anything else. But now that they were in the midst of researching two different authoritarian regimes and creating underground resistance media to challenge them, she was coming to genuinely like her roommate.

Yes, Savannah wore a lot of pink. Yes, she was still laser-focused on joining the sorority. But she had a really dry sense of humor that Avery suspected she had overlooked, probably due to her overwhelming homesickness for her Itasca friends. Savannah was someone totally new, totally unconnected from Avery’s hometown, and Avery didn’t have a safe haven to retreat to if things got awkward. As December ticked by, Avery found she sort of liked that.

They were on the floor of their room one night, the sky outside their room pitch-black even though they had just gotten back from dinner, when Savannah looked up from her laptop. “You can just pretend I didn’t say anything if you don’t want to answer, but any news from your parents?”

Avery stared at the half-written essay called up on her screen and considered the question for a minute. “No. But my dad has been extra weird lately, so—I dunno. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part.” Part of Avery wondered if she’d suspected the truth about her dad even before she found out, if maybe on some level she had always sensed her family was trapped in a web of lies of their own making.

“That something might be happening with them?” Savannah glanced down at her laptop again. “Okay, wait one second. Are you doing the social media videos or am I? I can’t remember.”

“You’re doing the videos, and I’m doing the breaking-news, short-form text posts.”

“Got it.”