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My ave out onyou purposely became friends with me so you could watch over me? That--"

"No," she was quick to insist "We knew each other before We were friends Not extremely close, but you liked me"

Luc nodded "You liked her Youyou liked everyone Even Archer You don’t remember this, but you met him the first time he was out in the real world, and was incredibly socially aard You ate breadsticks with him"

I remembered Archer from the club Not the Archer Iate breadsticks with

"I don’t think that’s helping, Luc," Zoe said

There were several long h or cry Or screaood plan at this point

"When you called me today, while you were at school, youyou knehat happened today?" My voice shook

"Luc called and gave ht then I was going to I swear But I didn’t want to do it over the phone"

"Yeah, because doing it in person is easier" I took a breath, but it didn’t help the sudden dizzy feeling "This is why you never came around my house when my mom was home, isn’t it?"

She had the decency to look sheepish "I couldn’t risk her realizing what I was"

"Because you always knew she was a Luxen?"

Zoe nodded

Staring at them, I didn’t really see theht now"

"I understand that, but--"

"You don’t understand that," I cut Zoe off "How could you possibly understand this--any of this?"

She started to speak, but I couldn’t be in that rooer I couldn’t be around either of the, and I pivoted, relieved when I found that the door was open fortheh the hall My heart was racing as I went down the spiral staircase, and I felt--oh ht hurl

Hurt bri bodies,a beeline for the door I couldn’t deal with this It was too h ical friend She was the one who I always trusted to stopstupid, and she was the last person I’d ever expected to be lying to nored ate and stalked down the driveway,the road, I drew up short and ended up staring at the dark houses across the street "Where in the hell did I park?"

Way down the block

I had no idea where I was going I was just going Maybe get on the interstate and head west, keep driving until I ran out of gas I figured--

Evie

Tiny hairs rose all over my body My name I heard my name, but it hadn’t been--It didn’t sound like it had been out loud More like it had been in h a lot in the last twenty-four hours Attacked Had my arm broken and healed Found out I wasn’t even Evie So I shouldn’t be surprised that I was hearing voices That see

Evie

There it was again I stopped, frowning What in the world?

Slowly, I turned around even as every part of ht back to the party, but that wasn’t what I did I stepped out onto the sidewalk "Hello?"