Hector

Drew: Are you sure?

Hector: . . . Tempting. Very, VERY tempting but as much as I’d love take you up on that offer, I’m gonna have to pass on any of that from here on. It just feels wrong now.

Drew: Okay, but just so you know the offer stands indefinitely. Charlee can be . . . complicated. So just remember I’m your go-to girl, and I’m only a text away. ;)

The driver’s side door opened, and Charlee set the phone down immediately, the blood thrumming against her ears loudly.

“So does he want me to get him anything?”

“Yes,” Charlee said at the moment, unable to remember what her dad had asked for. “Uh,” Drew started the car but didn’t pull out. She stared at Charlee, waiting. “A chicken sandwich,” Charlee finally said.

Whatever they talked about on their way to KFC and then back to Drew’s house was a blur now. All Charlee could think of were the texts. There had to be an explanation. So why not just ask her? She couldn’t. The fear that this might be what it actually sounded like was paralyzing. It just couldn’t be true, but why hadn’t either of them mentioned that they texted each other? Certainly Charlee would mention to Hector if she was texting with any of his friends, especially if his friends were making her very tempting offers that felt wrong. And what did he mean he needed to pass on them from here on? The offer stands indefinitely. What the hell was she offering him? His go-to girl?

Charlee rushed straight toward her room as soon as they got to the house.

“Aren’t you gonna eat?” Drew asked.

“I need to unpack first,” she said as she blew past Drew, the anger and feelings of betrayal mounting.

There was a knock on the door. “You okay?” Drew called from the other side.

“I’m fine,” Drew said, reaching for the crumpled letter in her pocket.

“Okay . . .” Drew said, obviously picking up on Charlee’s not so fine tone. “I’ll be in the dining room with my dad if you wanna join us. You should before your sandwich gets cold.”

Charlee couldn’t even respond now that she reread the letter from Danny. If this were really true, if Drew were capable of doing this, tempting Hector with who knows what and telling him Charlee was complicated, then maybe she did know about the dog party beforehand.

Her mind raced now as she paced in her room. Could Hector have really done something with Drew, even if it now felt wrong and had turned Drew’s offer down? She remembered his interest in Drew before he showed any in Charlee. Her head buzzed with so many things coming to her now.

The day after the keg party, Charlee had gone back to bed, and Drew was gone when she woke. Then Drew had acted so weirdly when she got home, and Charlee had asked her where she’d been. Unable to take it anymore, she rushed out of her room, stopping only when she saw Drew’s phone on the table in the front room. She picked it up and opened the text message log and clicked on Hector’s name. She scrolled randomly, reading the first exchange it stopped on.

Drew: I can’t believe you’ve never noticed. She so pathetically obvious about how lovesick she is!

Hector: Yeah, well, kill me I hadn’t. Maybe my mind being so preoccupied with another girl had something to do with it.

“Are you . . .” Charlee looked up at Drew, who stood by the dining room entrance staring at Charlee holding her phone.

Hot tears blurred Charlee’s vision now. Drew had been the number one advocate all her life for trying to convince Charlee she wasn’t pathetic. Her using the word in describing her, and to Hector of all people, hurt more than her not telling her about the texts.

“Did you know about the dog party before I went to it?” Her words were a strained whisper. She could hardly believe she was saying them.

Drew’s expression fell, and Charlee knew right then it was true. “Who told you?”

A numbing chill ran down her spine. This couldn’t be possible. “Danny did. Is it true?”

She shook her head, but Drew’s words said otherwise. “I couldn’t tell you, Charlee.”

Feeling as if her heart had just been ripped out of her chest, Charlee sucked in her breath but couldn’t hold back the emotion any longer. “You knew?” Drew’s own lip quivered now. There was no denying Charlee’s worst nightmare. Drew had done the unthinkable and joined the bullies against her. “You knew and you let me go?” She raised her now-sobbing voice. “Encouraged me to when you knew I didn’t even want to in the first place!”

Drew’s dad came to the dining room doorway, looking very concerned.

“I wanted to tell you,” Drew took a few steps toward her. “But I couldn’t.”

“Why? How could you let me go? How could you do that me?” The pain was so profound Charlee could barely breathe between sobs now.

Drew turned to face her dad then Charlee again. “I just couldn’t. It wasn’t supposed to turn out that way. You know I’d never hurt you like that, Charlee.”

“But you did! You knowingly let me do something that you knew would humiliate me. You pushed me to do it!” She sobbed, unable to understand how she could be so wrong about Drew. Then she gasped and looked back down at Drew’s phone in her hand. “You and Hector text?”

Drew’s eyes became a little wider. “I didn’t tell you because I thought you’d be mad.”

“You think!” Charlee dropped the phone onto the sofa and spun around.