Once they were in the car, Dylan drove, and Ellie said nothing.

"You disappeared," Dylan said. "Where did you go?"

Ellie twiddled her fingers in her lap, where Dylan's gaze rested before he remembered he needed to watch the road. "Trina's husband had to tell me something."

Dylan felt his throat go dry. "What did he tell you?" he asked, though he felt pretty sure he knew exactly what Trina's husband had told her.

"He told me something I wish he hadn't."

Dylan swallowed. "Was it about my dad?"

Ellie turned to him sharply. "What about your dad?" Even her voice was sharp.

Dylan swallowed again. "Ellie, look, I have to tell you something."

"God, do you know, too? How many people fucking know? Nobody was supposed to find out."

"Wait...did you know?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I set them up. It seemed like the perfect setup, like both of them would be so concerned about saving face that they would keep things really clean." Ellie's anger came off of her in fumes, and Dylan continued to drive in utter astonishment.

His mouth felt so dry. "I can't believe you knew."

She said nothing.

"Did it not make you feel... bad, knowing my dad was having sex with another woman?"

"Not really. At least he was getting it out of his system."

Dylan clenched the steering wheel, not out of anger, but out of something. "Do you even love my dad, Ellie?"

"I don't know, Dylan. Okay? I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Dylan didn't care that she didn't want to talk; he pulled into the parking lot of a closed café and turned the car off, looking over at Ellie. Her wide eyes looked back at him. "You need to talk about this. I'm your best friend. We should be able to talk about our lives with each other."

She nodded, and opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but nothing came out. Dylan gave her time to think, and finally, after a few minutes, she looked up at the roof of the car and said, "How did I get here?" She started laughing, a sad sort of laughter. "How did things get so fucked up so quickly? Everything seemed fine for a while, like maybe we could just be a normal family. Who knows what's going to happen now. Lana's going to start some rumor about me and Trina's husband, and it will grow and spread because it's actually rooted in truth." Even though she'd just been laughing, she suddenly looked something like horrified. She wiped a tear from her cheek.

Dylan suddenly found himself pitying her. "You don't need to be normal. You're Ellie. You're awesome, and resilient, and it doesn't matter what those LEPO women say about you, because you're better than every single one of them." He took her hand in his own and squeezed, and she looked into his eyes. She actually smiled, that genuine smile that had such a way of getting to him.

That spark of connection he'd been yearning for, the same spark he'd used to feel in their youth, made itself known, sizzling and sparkling in his mind. The moment he'd long waited for had come to fruition. He leaned in to kiss Ellie.

Their lips floated so closely he could feel the electricity between them, but before he felt his flesh against hers, she pulled away. "What the fuck, Dylan?"

He opened his eyes to find her horrified expression. "What? I thought we were having a moment."

"We were. A friendship moment."

"I just thought—"

"—You just thought what, Dylan? You didn't think. You couldn't possibly think that. I moved away from everything I knew so I wouldn't be known as the girl who got pregnant by her best friend's dad. Do you really think I'd ever want to be known as the girl who got with her stepson? With her son's older brother? I'd be the laughingstock of the Southwest"

Dylan found himself grasping for words. "Don't you want to be happy?"

She laughed then, each bit of laughter tinged with condescension. "You think you could make me happy?"

Her words stung, so much. He'd long cherished the thought that he could be the key to her happiness, but he realized right then his fantasies had been merely just that...fantasies. Maybe, even if he had made the offer to marry her and raise Avery, she would have rejected him. The thought had never occurred to him. He'd always imagined that, had he made the offer in time, before his dad had finally manned up and done it, she would have accepted it.

The manner of her response did more than just sting his pride; it pissed him off, and he found himself growing defensive, hating her once more.

Of course he couldn't be the key to her happiness. Fake people weren't happy. If they were, they wouldn't be fake. That's all Ellie was. Fake. Her and his dad pretended to have a wonderful family and a glorious life, but underneath that image of perfection was a disgusting, plastic fakeness.

"No," he finally responded. "You're just my slutty friend who seduced my dad the night of our graduation. And you somehow think you're better than Leah, that you're more successful, just because you can afford to fit in with the fake moms of the Lake End Parent Organization. News flash, Ellie: my dad bought you your success. That's the difference between you and Leah. My dad gives you everything, while Trigger's dad gave Leah bruises and a fucked-up view of the world."

He didn't look up at Ellie until he'd finished his speech, and when he did, he saw that her eyes shined with tears that threatened to run down her cheeks. "If Leah's so great, then why did you just try to kiss me?"

"It was a mistake. I won't make it again."

Averting her eyes from him, she faced the front windshield. "Take me home."

After shifting to third gear in anger, he drove quickly down the main street, and the two of them didn't talk to each other again.