“So?”

She rolled her eyes. “Are you going to explain it now?”

“Explain what?”

“Jesse Hunt!” Her arms went wide. “My god, you left with him. You haven’t been answering your phone. I mean, what is going on with you two?”

A spark of anger lit in me. “You knew about us. You’ve known since August. You just assumed that he would’ve forgotten me, didn’t you?”

“I…” She sighed. Her mouth opened, and then closed. She gaped at me like a fish. “I don’t know what I thought. Yes, I thought it stopped with you two. He’s going to destroy you. Don’t you see that? Can’t you stop it?”

My blank face was my response. It was now none of her business. Her opinions had been heard, but it didn’t stop me. It wasn’t going to stop me. Seeing that, she threw her hands in the air again. Then she twisted to the side. “Marissa? Don’t you have anything to say?”

Her shoulders lifted and then lowered. She glanced up, but there was such fear there. “Um, I don’t feel like I have anything worthwhile to share.”

“Are you kidding me?”

She gave her a helpless shrug. “What do you want me to say? She’s going to do what she wants to do. I mean, we’ve told her our worries, but that’s all we can do. We can’t make her not see him.” Then she bit her lip again and looked down. Her thumbs were twiddling a second later.

“Oh my god! I can’t believe the two of you.” Angie jerked to me again. “You don’t have anything else to say?”

I kept my voice calm. “I’ve never lied to you, not openly. I might not have shared certain information with you, but I never really lied to you. You guys knew about Jesse. I just didn’t tell you that it hadn’t stopped when I realized you thought it had.”

“But, there.” Her arm shot at me, pointing. “Right there is a lie. You lied to me by not correcting me. I’m your friend, Alex. Why wouldn’t you share this with me?”

“Because of this. You don’t like him—”

“That’s not true.”

“—you don’t like the idea of him and me—”

“That’s true.”

“—and you’re only saying all this stuff because you think there’s no chance that Jesse would ever be with me.” I finished out of breath. My chest was heaving.

Her mouth twisted into a frown. “I didn’t, that’s not all true.”

“Yes, it is,” Marissa spoke up, now timid.

“What?” Angie whirled around to face her. Her arms got tighter over her chest. “You agree with her?”

“Just that,” she stopped, pale in her face. Then she looked away, shrugging once again. “Never mind.”

My mouth dropped open.

Angie’s eyebrows went high. “What? No, what? What were you going to say?”

“Nothing,” she mumbled.

“Marissa.” Her voice was harsh. “Come on. You just agreed with everything I said this morning and now you’re backing down? You don’t agree with me? I look like a fool.”

I frowned, but Marissa’s head shot back up. “That’s not true, and it’s not about you. You have an opinion on her life, but you’re forgetting that we’re not all as perfect as you.”

“I agree.”

Angie shot me a glare, but turned back to her. “Excuse me?”

Marissa visibly swallowed and tucked her hands under her legs. Then she looked up, a brave front. “You forget that some of us don’t have the perfect boyfriend. We don’t have the perfect relationship. We’re not you. We’re not as lucky as you are.”

Angie’s mouth dropped to the ground. She was speechless. Then she gurgled out, “Are you kidding me?”

She was right. Marissa was totally right, but when Angie swung her fierce gaze towards me, I looked down. I had escaped the lion’s den so far, and I sent a mental thank you to Marissa. However, a different tension filled the room now. Angie had been called out on something she didn’t want to hear, even I knew that much. Now it was the question of how she was going to take it.

“You are so stupid!”

Not well.

“Excuse me?” Marissa’s eyes flashed from anger. She sat like a queen now. There was no slouch at all in her posture.

“You heard me.”

“I can’t believe you. You don’t have any idea of what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, I do,” Marissa cried out. She was heated. “You’re so goddamn perfect all the time, Angie. None of us can measure up to you. And so what if Jesse and Alex are screwing around? If I did that with him, you wouldn’t care. You’d pester me for details and you’d even get excited, but you’d laugh at me behind my back. I know how you operate, Angie. Me, I’m just some stupid slut, but Alex, heavens no. She’s a saint to you. Wake up! She’s a mess. She has been since her brother died. I’m not surprised at all that’s she screwing him. He’s hot.”

A grin broke free from me. I couldn’t hold it back.

Angie growled from disgust. She blasted both of us with her frosty glare. “I can’t believe either of you two. You both are settling, and I think it’s revolting. I don’t want my friends to settle for less than what they deserve. You deserve a guy who loves you. You deserve a guy who will treat you openly and be honest with how he cares for you. You don’t deserve to hide or keep your relationship a secret.”