Page 87 of Repairing the Wreckage

“But we all saw it!” Darcy shouts, waving a different spatula in the air.

I sniffle and nod. “I know.” I take several deep breaths. “Torch even suggested maybe the show set up Griff?” My voice is tentative, almost like I’m testing the theory out on my friends to see if they’ll say I’m crazy for believing that.

Hayden’s eyes widen and she sits back. “He said what?”

My shoulders lift slightly, and Kyla releases me, backing away. I reach out and squeeze her hand to let her know I wasn’t shrugging her off.

“I retract my earlier statement,” Hayden says. “You should not bang Torch.”

A sad chuckle eases out of me. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.” I suck in a deep breath. “But I couldn’t stop thinking about what he said. I mean, of all the people in the world, he has the most reason to want me to keep thinking Griff cheated.”

“True.” Hayden tilts her head to the side. “Damn. Okay. He gets some decent guy points for that.”

The attention’s thankfully taken off of me for a few minutes while Kyla and Darcy set a plate with a huge stack of pancakes on the counter in front of Hayden and me. Jenn leaves her perch by the kitchen table and passes plates out to everyone.

Hayden pokes at one of the pancakes with a fork and wrinkles her nose.

“Just eat around the burned bits.” Kyla flings the top two pancakes onto Hayden’s plate.

Chuckling, I jab my fork into the next pancake and drag it onto my plate. “They look fine.”

“You can have the syrup first,” Kyla says, passing the big, tan jug to me while giving Hayden a stink-eye.

“You and Darcy should’ve gone first since you made the pancakes.” I quickly drizzle maple syrup on my pancake and push the jug into the middle of the counter.

I scrape a piece of pancake from the top layer, careful to avoid the thick, charred bottom and stick it in my mouth. Sweet, warm blueberries and cinnamon bursts over my tongue. “Mmm, they’re good,” I say around my mouthful.

Kyla sticks her tongue out at Hayden.

Before they can get into it again, I take a sip of water and announce, “So I couldn’t stop thinking about what Torch said and I ended up watching that episode again last night.”

Everyone stops eating and stares at me.

“Molly, no!” Kyla gasps and slaps her hands over her mouth, like I just announced I murdered a baby bunny. “Why?”

I trace my fork in a wavy pattern through the maple syrup on my plate, then stab a stray blueberry. “I don’t know. Remy believes him too.”

Darcy announces, “Bros before?—”

“He’s literally her bro.” Hayden glares at Darcy, then nods at me. “Go on.”

“They’re all being weird about it or at least weird around me about it, but I think Eraser and Ella believe him too.” I flick my gaze at Hayden. “And you remember how pissed they were that night.”

Hayden shrugs. “But they’ve all been friends a long time. He didn’t cheat on them. He cheated on you.”

“Allegedly!” Kyla announces.

“There’s nothing alleged about it,” Darcy counters, holding her curled hands up to her eyes like a pair of binoculars. “We saw it.”

“Nope. No way.” Kyla shakes her head violently. “We all saw Griff on prom night. He never took his eyes off Molly. And he was so sweet to us, even though we barged into their room. I refuse to believe he did that to her.”

I stare at her in wide-eyed shock. Kyla spent a good portion of the summer consoling me, but she never voiced any of this. Now that I’ve given her an opening, apparently, she’s airing out all her doubts.

She crosses her arms over her chest and continues, “Besides, I don’t trust any of those so-called ‘reality’ shows. You remember that stupid one we watched with the washed-up rock star who was supposedly looking for love? That dude was in a whole-ass relationship with his baby momma the entire time. Both seasons!”

“Oh yeah!” Darcy’s eyes widen. “How embarrassing for his family.”

“That happened on Matchmaker Mansion too.” Jenn snaps her fingers. “One of the women trying to date the bachelor was actually married to a woman.”

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