“Don’t‘what’me.Was it before or after I suggested he stay with you, Anna?”
I shake my head frantically.“It’s not like that.We’re not—it’s nothing!”
Joel’s jaw tightens.
Something flickers in his expression.
Something that feels like disappointment.
My stomach plummets.
Ethan lets out a slow breath.Runs a hand through his hair.Then exhales, still looking like he’s trying to wrap his head around this.
Same, bro.Same.
Ethan’s voice is sharp, cutting, filled with something too tangled to name.
“Really, Joel?”He shakes his head, muttering a curse under his breath.“You pick now to do this?At Mina’s party?”
Joel flinches.
My chest tightens.
Ethan’s words cut too deep, and the worst part?I see it hit Joel.
I see it in the way his jaw locks.In the way his shoulders shift, how his fingers twitch at his sides—like he wants to fix this, but he doesn’t know how.
And for some reason, that makes something snap inside me.
“That’s not fair,” I blurt before I can stop myself.
Joel’s head whips toward me, startled.
Ethan’s brows shoot up.
Oh.
Oh,crap.
I don’t know why I said it.
I just know I had to.
Ethan narrows his eyes.“Since when do you defend him?”
Joel visibly stills.
And I feel it—the sudden shift in the air, the weight of what Ethan just said pressing into my chest.
Because he’s right.
I don’t defend Joel.
I never have.
So why am I doing it now?
I cross my arms, defensive.“I’m not—defending him, I’m just?—”