Needless to say, Adriana was not pleased. I think a part of her is hoping that I’ll take her and Harper with me wherever I go for college. But I’ve only ever promised to provide for them, not to stick around.

Via flings herself over the bed and presses her arm to her eyes. She is crying again.

“I can’t believe you fell for her, Penn.”

This is the third time this evening I’m being poked about my feelings toward Skull Eyes. No wall in this mansion is safe from my fist.

“You can’t see her anymore.” Via wipes at her tears.

I stare at her pitifully. “It’s not for you to decide.”

“No.” She shakes her head frantically, standing up. “You don’t understand. You can’t. I will never forgive the betrayal.”

“What betrayal?”

“The letter of acceptance you both destroyed.”

Sonofabitch. How does she know?

“That’s right.” She tilts her chin up. “Daria decided to throw it in my face tonight. She thought it’d be fun to see me agonized over it. Penn, how could you like someone like that? I know she is pretty, but she is horrible. She did awful things to me and other people. She tore us apart.”

I suck in my teeth as the world tilts sideways. I’m losing grip of my shit. Sometimes I wish I’d been born an eagle or a wolf or a fucking wombat. Anything not to deal with people.

“Break up with her.”

“Via,” I warn. I don’t take orders from anyone. Not even Coach.

“It’s an ultimatum.” Her voice turns steady and metallic.

“That’s a big word for someone who currently means so little to me.” It’s my turn to cut deep. Her face twists in agony to my confession.

“Oh.” I cock an eyebrow. “You thought I was still the same asshole you left behind?”

She is quivering like a leaf now. She rushes over to me and grabs my shoulders. I don’t know why I hate it even more than I’ve hated everything about her ever since she came back. The original Via was a lot of things, but she wasn’t tacky. She was real. Real petty. Real vindictive. Real hungry. But real all the same.

“You don’t understand!” She stomps. “It’s either her or me.”

“I don’t do ultimatums,” I announce emotionlessly. “Make me choose, and you won’t like the results.”

“If you don’t break up with her, I am moving back with Dad. It’s been horrible there, but at least I feel like I have some sort of family. They mean well, even if their way of life is all wrong. I can’t be here, among strangers, with a brother who is in love with my archenemy, the girl who ruined my future. Why should I stick around for a guy who helped Daria Followhill get rid of my acceptance letter to the Royal Academy? That’s why I left, Penn. Now watch as I hitchhike back to Mississippi. Just pray I won’t be raped and beaten to death this time around. And before you ask if I mean it—please remember, I did it four years ago, when I was much younger and even more helpless.”

My blood runs cold in my veins. We both know I will never forgive myself if Via leaves again. Her past four years have been hell, and we weren’t there for each other. Yes, she returned a little kooky, and preachy, and way too nice and proper for my liking, but she is still my twin sister. We shared a womb for nine months, and all the problems life threw at us after that. Her absence hasn’t changed that. A girl with eyes like the endless ocean and hair like golden beaches doesn’t change that.

Then Via puts the last nail in the coffin.

“If you don’t break up with her, I’ll tell her mother, friends, and everyone she cares about what she did to me. We both know they love her but don’t like her one bit. All they need is a little push to make Daria become a reject, and I’m more than happy to shove. It will be a spectacular fall. But if you do as I say, her secret’s safe with me.”

I turn around and stalk out before I do something stupid.

Stopping at the threshold of her room, my back still to her, I drop a counter strike. Call it friendly fire, but a soldier doesn’t go down without taking an enemy with him.

“You don’t want me with Followhill? Stay the fuck away from Gus.”

If I could hate you Like you hate yourself

I wouldn’t be eaten alive

By guilt

Desire

And lust

I wake up with a blossoming hangover that presses against my eyelids like cold metal. Reaching for my face, I graze my hand over the necklace Penn gave me back. A grin spreads on my face before I remember Via slapping me. My admission to her. How Penn ran after her. My mouth goes dry.

She could tell Mel.

She could tell Penn.

She could tell the whole school.

Shitballs.

Melody, Dad, and Bailey are already downstairs. The scents of fresh cleaning products from the crew that came in last night to take care of the mess we left, bacon, eggs, and honey buns waft through the crack of my door. I feel for my phone on my nightstand and check it, frantic.

There are the usual group messages from my friends, then another message from Penn.

Meet me in Vaughn’s pool house at noon.

My heart paces back and forth, trying to decode this invitation, shaking its imaginary head. I try to calm it to a reasonable pulse. Penn probably wants to do what Vaughn did in my pool house at my party, and we can’t do that here with my parents around. He doesn’t sound mad. He sounds like good ole dry Penn.