On my way home, I catch Brendon sitting on his porch looking at his phone. I try to pretend he's not there as I pass.

"Ruby." He calls my name. I walk faster. "How's your boy band obsession?"

That makes me halt. I turn to see him standing right over me. "What?"

"Palaye Royale, or whatever?"

"How do you know about that?"

"The same way I know about your 130 IQ."

"You found my Instagram?" I say out of shock.

"I conducted research. It's only fair since you clearly did it on me. That's how you found out about the Way family, isn't it?" His tone is low and dark.

I swallow hard.

He laughs. "I knew it."

"You can't just go on my Instagram page. It's private, how'd you even see it?"

"Harvard computer science, you learn some things. Also, my IQ happens to be 150."

"I don't believe you. There's no way you could've seen it."

He pulls out his phone. "I was looking at a post that caught my attention specifically. It was taken some months ago with the caption: My best friend. I confide in her for everything, especially since she's the only kid my age cool with me being deaf." He shows me his phone with a bathroom selfie of Amber and I had taken a while back.

My mouth slightly parts.

"Now, that 'I confide in her for everything,' business is just an exaggeration, right?"

"I didn't tell her."

"I never said you did."

"You were implying it."

"No, I wasn't."

"Yes, you were."

"Yeah, okay, I was." He smirks.

"That has to be illegal."

"Yeah, but so is... what we did."

I want to vomit.

"You don't have to say you didn't tell, Ruby. I'll know if you did."

"How?"

"I have my ways. Why?"

"Rebecca!" A voice exclaims. It's my father, walking toward us.

"Hi, Billie." Brendon says in a chipper voice.

"Hey, Brendon. Is she giving you trouble?" My dad asks sarcastically.

"No, we were just talking." It's like someone flipped a switch on this guy. "130 IQ? That's... outstanding."

"Not compared to your 150." I butt in.

My dad laughs. "Alright, you can nerd out with him later. Your mom made dinner. Brendon, would you like to join us?"

My heart skips a beat.

"Thanks for the offer, but, I can't. I have a lot of work to do tonight."

"Alright, good seeing you. C'mon, kiddo."

I follow my dad back to the house, not needing to look behind me to know Brendon still has eyes on me.