Page 56 of No Place Left to Hide

“Shit.” He sits on the edge of his seat and angles toward me. “Okay, let me try again: You’re damn impressive, Brooke. I’ve watched you slowly dominate the school since I moved to town, and you always seem so far ahead of the rest of us. Like, we’re all worried about biology homework and you’re thinking about which science class will give you a leg up in undergrad. We’re laughing about someone farting in the hallway, and you’re planning a clothing drive for the homeless and writing an essay about it. You’ve always been next-level, and I guess I assumed the universe would have balanced you out with a mean streak or something. How are you so put together and compassionate at the same time?”

A grin tugs at my face. “That was slightly better.”

He holds my gaze, and then that damn knee starts up again. He looks into the fire. “If I’m being completely honest, you’re also nothing like Claire said you were.”

The blood in my veins runs cold. “Claire talked about me?”

“Constantly. Especially after her dad lost his job.”

Part of me wants to scream about her being brought upagain, butthe need to know what she said about me—when she knew how badly I wanted him—is a physical ache in my chest. I stop myself before the words leave my mouth, though. There’s no good way to ask that question without looking obnoxious. I change tactics and instead keep the focus on him. Because that’s the kind of consideration that’s earned his attention tonight.

“We don’t have to talk about Claire. Your breakup wasn’t that long ago. It’s probably still hard.”

He nods. “It’s harder to watch her struggle than it is to talk about it. Especially tonight. I’ve never seen her like that.”

The last thing I want is to find more reasons to talk about Claire fucking Heck, but this is the bed I made for myself. “Why did you two break up?”

Dylan shrugs and looks out at the lake. I think he’s not going to answer me, until he lets out a sigh.

“When her dad lost his job, it changed things. She got super resentful and talked about it all the time. The firm, your family, how unfair it was that they were losing their house and her parents had to sell her car… I couldn’t imagine what she was going through. I tried to be there for her as much as I could, but weeks became months and she got more and more angry.

“I went to help them pack last May, when they moved out of their house, and I found her throwing things around her room: trophies, photo albums, dance team medals, framed awards. She started screaming about how none of it mattered anymore, and that it was all your fault and your family was the root of all evil.

“I couldn’t see how this was your fault, and I guess I made the mistake of saying that. She looked at me like I’d slapped her. It was never the same after that. I hung on for a few more months, but I barely sawher over the summer. When she called to break it off, I knew it was coming. I hadn’t seen her in weeks.”

“Wait.” I hold up my hands. “You two broke up because you defended me?”

He nods. “She said I had the chance to pick a side and I chose the wrong one. That she couldn’t have any more backstabbers in her life if she had any chance of starting over. I tried to get her to meet up so we could talk, but in the end she told me I’d already served my purpose and there was nothing left to talk about.

“After that, she blocked my number. I didn’t see or speak to her again until she came to the bookstore this morning to apologize, and I stupidly told her about your party. Seeing her standing at the register was like looking at a ghost.”

My hands ball into fists and I watch as my knuckles turn white. Did he know what she meant when she said he’dserved his purpose? Because I sure as hell do. The flat-out audacity of telling the boy you only dated to spite someone else, that he’s worthless because you can’t use him anymore, is vile. And she said it to hisface.

“God, Dylan, I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve any of that.”

“You know what’s really sad?” He rests his head against the back of the chair and stares up at the sky. “Part of me keeps waiting for her to go back to the way she was. Even today, when she walked into the bookstore, some part of my brain thought,Maybe this is it; maybe the old Claire is back.She used to be the happiest girl I’d ever met in my life. Her joy was infectious, you know? And now she’s…a black hole. One hundred percent resentment. It’s like the old Claire died and a stranger took her place.”

I have to work to keep my mouth from falling open. The happiest girl he’d ever met? Claire? I mean, yeah, she was always laughing, but it wasn’t happiness. More often than not, she was enjoying someoneelse’s downfall or making jokes at their expense. It certainly wasn’t all good vibes and sunshine.

It’s like we knew two entirely different people. But I want to relate to him, to be someone he feels comfortable talking to, so I think back—way, way back, before our entire friendship became a competition—and a long-buried memory comes to mind. “Do you know how we met? Claire and I?”

He shakes his head.

“First day of kindergarten. My dad was running late and dropped me off in the hallway outside the classroom. I didn’t know where to put my bag, or where to sit, and I’d never spent a lot of time with other kids my age so I felt totally out of my element. I stood by the door all nervous until this scrawny little girl with two missing teeth popped over. We’d been in class for maybe two minutes, and she already knew almost everyone’s name. I’d never seen someone smile so much in my entire life. She pointed at my pink dress, declared pink her favorite color, and that was that. We were instant friends in that way that only happens in elementary school. We did absolutely everything together, just the two of us, until Jena moved here in middle school.”

“I didn’t know you guys were friends for so long. I can’t name anyone I went to kindergarten with.”

An unexpected pang of sadness makes me sit up and clear my throat. “I wish things had been different, honestly. The rivalry just got out of hand.”

“When did that start?”

“I first noticed it freshman year, but it didn’t get really bad until right before she left school. We’d always been a little competitive, but last year it became all-consuming. Suddenly everything I wanted, she wanted. And she started making really reckless decisions, acting out.She also really hated Jena and Felix together and kept trying to tell Jena that she could do better, so they were constantly arguing about that. It was a whole mess. This time last year, Claire, Jena, and I were basically inseparable. It’s wild how much can change in a single year.”

“Tell me about it.”

Dylan and I fall into a comfortable silence. For a while, the only sound in the whole yard is the lake water washing up on the shore and the crackling fire.

He gets up to adjust a log, and a fresh cluster of sparks dances up into the air. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,” he says, sitting back down, “but I’m very glad I came to this party.”

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