“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.”

She stopped suddenly, but her chest kept heaving. Her shallows breaths were loud in the quiet room, but then Marissa hopped to her feet. Her chin was set and she flared in defiance. “I don’t care what you say. You don’t know me anymore, Ang. You used to, but some messed up crap has happened to me. You have no idea and you have no right to judge me anymore. I won’t stick around for it.”

“But—” Angie’s mouth dropped once again. When she saw that Marissa was about to leave, her long finger extended towards me. “We’re here for her, not for you and me. You called me, remember? You were the one who said we needed to get Alex out of the house and have a friend trip. What the hell? How did we get into a fight? This was all about Alex.”

I straightened at that. “Excuse me?”

Her mouth snapped back shut. “Nothing.”

My gaze whipped to Marissa. “What is she talking about?”

Her eyes were wide, fearful, but then she crumbled. She said so quietly, “I saw your parents at the airport, Alex.”

Nothing. I felt nothing.

There was no friendliness. There was no warmth. There wasn’t even pain. I’d gone numb again. But I choked out, “And?” I needed to hear it all, and from the torment on her face, I knew there was a bunch more.

I got myself ready.

“We know they ditched you for the holidays.”

Oh. They knew. Angie had already told me they knew, but this made more sense now.

“Well?” Both of them watched me.

“What?”

“That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?” Angie seemed dumbfounded.

I shrugged. “What do you want me to say? You already knew. You found their note.”

“But they’re here,” she cried out. “They’re here to see Jesse and they’re not including you in anything.”

“They’re married. That’s for them to do. This is like a second honeymoon or something.”

“And they told you with a note!” Her arms flung wide again. “I would be going crazy. I would be calling them and chewing them out. How dare they forget you! You’re their child. You’re their last kid alive. You’d think they’d go overboard with you since they lost Ethan.”

Pain ripped through me. A shudder of torment that I’d always suppressed broke free at hearing those words. They’d been thoughts that I had over the past year, but I’d never voiced them. I never said a word to my parents. They were grieving. They had lost Ethan too. So I gave them their distance. I became the good girl for them. I didn’t want them to worry about me either, but then it had gone too far. They stopped caring. They stopped loving. And now, as Angie said all of that, the main thought I had was that it felt as if I wasn’t their child anymore. They had always loved Ethan more, but after this year I was starting to wonder if they had ever loved me.

I didn’t want to burden them. I didn’t want to be a burden to them. It was best to remain quiet.

I shrugged again, but I couldn’t look at them. I couldn’t make eye contact. It hurt too much and I didn’t want them to see that. “Its fine, you guys.”

“It’s not!”

Then I gave up and surrendered. “What are you going to do about it?”

They stopped. They blinked. Their mouths opened. No sound came out. They were like owls. After awhile, Angie strangled out, “What do you mean?”

“What do you want me to do?”