Page 112 of The Glittering Edge

it’s easier if you watch it, okay? and don’t mention it to penny.

and the next time you decide to date someone like dylan, maybe think about the consequences, because she’s a human too. whatever fucked up game you’re playing with her, it’s not going to end well for anyone.

Don’t pretend you understand what this is like for me. I’m doing the best I can.

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Alonso De Luca

does “doing your best” include bulldozing through other people’s lives?

You’re really going to blame me for this? YOU?

I’m done with this conversation.

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Alonso De Luca

i don’t care. watch the video.

hello? did you watch it?

corey?

Corey

COREY DOES WATCH THE VIDEO. HE WATCHES IT AGAIN, AND AGAIN,and again. Alonso is still texting him, but Corey doesn’t bother to read any of his messages. He doesn’t want to be reminded that Alonso is right.

Dylan, you’re drunk!

Put her down!

This is what happens to sluts who try to steal my boyfriend.

This is why Penny smelled like alcohol—and why she was wearing Alonso’s T-shirt. When he realized the shirt was Alonso’s, Corey got so anxious he couldn’t even make eye contact with her. He shouldn’t care if they’re spending time together without him. But then there was that night at the hospital. Corey and Penny were up until midnight watching and rewatching their favorite episodes ofAmityville High.It was the first time Corey had been able to relax in weeks.

So when Corey saw Penny in that too-big T-shirt, it triggered something unexpected in him. It was a dark urge to keep her as far away from Alonso as possible. She doesn’t need Corey’s protection, but for a second, he didn’t even care. And as the conversation progressed and he learned what Penny and Alonso had done, that jealousy turned to anger.

But the second he watches the video, Corey forgets all about that. He’s not sure how long he sits there with it on a loop, trying to comprehend what he’s seeing. His hands are shaking.

Penny didn’t tell him about this. She stood there and let Corey yell at her. She let him believe he was in the right.

Corey rears back and throws his phone against the wall with a loudcrack.

This is all his fault. He could’ve broken up with Dylan or said that he and Penny were just friends. Instead, he lied to Dylan, and now it’s too late. The video already has over ten thousand views; by tomorrow, everyone in Idlewood will have seen it.

Corey can’t let that happen.

He barely registers the drive to Dylan’s house. He parks crooked in her driveway and doesn’t bother turning off his headlights. Her parents’ car is gone, and there’s an unfamiliar van in the driveway. Corey doesn’t think twice about it until, after ten minutes of banging on the door, a guy opens it.

It’s Royce Montalban.

“Hey,” Corey begins, and then he realizes Royce isn’t wearing a shirt.

“Oh,” Royce says. “It’s you.”

An unsettling feeling makes Corey look the guy up and down. “What are you doing here?”

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