“I just can’t believe it,” Josie said miserably, burying her face into the couch. “First that, and now she ghosts me?”

Lizzie didn’t say it out loud, but she wasn’t exactly surprised Penelope had disappeared on Josie. After the leak, Lizzie was sure her parents had a lot to say about it - probably first and foremost to stop seeing the girl they just watched her have sex with.

“I’m sure she’ll come around,” Lizzie said instead of the truth. “And if she doesn’t - well, she wasn’t the one anyways. You’ll find someone better.”

“Really?” Josie looked up at her sister.

“Yes, really. There are plenty of fish in the sea and all that.” Lizzie grabbed her water bottle from the fridge. 

“No, but Lizzie, I’ve seen the sea and it is …” Josie pulled a face.

“You’ve seen the Tinder sea. Mystic Falls is a whole different sea,” Lizzie corrected, popping open the pill bottle on the island. 

Josie raised an eyebrow. “You’re taking those now?” 

“Yeah, I forgot this morning.” Lizzie tilted her head back and swallowed.

“Lizzie, you have to take those on time or they don’t work.”

“There’s been a lot going on,” Lizzie snapped back. It wasn’t her fault there was some lunatic turning their lives inside out.

Josie doubled down. “And that’s exactly why we can’t afford to have you going off the deep end right now.”

“I’m not going off the deep end!” Her water bottle hit the counter a little too loudly. 

“Slam that water bottle harder, and maybe I’ll believe you next time,” Josie sneered, turning back to her phone. 

Lizzie scowled at the back of her sister’s head, but she stopped herself before she could say anything else. She reminded herself this was just a side effect of the late dose. She didn’t need to let her emotions get the best of her. She could just wait until they kicked in again and everything would go back to the way it should be inside her head. She let out a loud breath and headed towards her room, almost running MG over on the way.

“Whoa, sorry -” MG said, reaching for her arms.

Lizzie jerked back from his touch. “Now is not the time, MG!” she seethed. 

MG’s eyes widened. “Sorry.”

Lizzie let out an angry grunt and slammed the door to her bedroom.

“You two fight?” MG asked cautiously as he stepped into the living room.

“No.” Josie shook her head. “She’s just been skipping doses again.”

“Oh.” MG knew what happened when Lizzie started skipping doses. Josie usually got the brunt of it and MG just heard about it later, but he knew enough to know it wasn’t good. “Uh … how’s Penelope?”

“Ghosting me!” Josie threw down her phone. 

“Ghosting you?” MG flopped down next to her, exaggerating his surprise at the news. 

“I mean, I get it. The sex tape thing was …”

“Wild?”

“Terrifying.” Josie buried her face in her hands. “And her parents … I just want to know she’s okay. If she doesn’t want to talk to me after that, then fine, but … I just hate the way it ended, you know?” 

“Yeah, I know.” MG put his arms around his best friend. “But there’s plenty -”

“If you say ‘fish in the sea’, I will scream,” Josie warned. 

“No.” MG shook his head. “No, I was going to say that there’s plenty of …” His eyes scanned the room desperately, landing on the counter. “... donuts in the box?”

Josie laughed a little and MG smiled triumphantly. 

“That’s even worse,” she said weakly.

“Oh, I know.”