“I think she created the opportunity,” Avery replied carefully. “Whether that meant tipping him off or making sure he knew where you were, I don’t believe any of it was accidental.”
A chill traveled down my spine.
“I’m so sorry. I never should have left, because once you were alone,” she continued, “someone was waiting.”
It hadn’t been spontaneous rage. It had been premeditated positioning.
“Rumors only spike when she’s in the room,” Avery added. “Have you noticed that?”
I had. Information surfaced before it should. Details shared privately found their way into the hallways without a visible source. Elise never carried them herself. They simply appeared—already shaped.
We slowed near a stretch of rocks where tide pools reflected the pale sky in fractured pieces.
“It’s not coincidence,” Avery pressed.
It sat heavier than coincidence ever could.
She slowed, gaze fixed on the water. “You knew she came after me when you left,” she began quietly.
“You told me that day in the library, close to when I first came back to Blackwood.”
“I didn’t tell you how far things went.”
Something in her tone got to me.
“When you left without saying anything, I felt abandoned. I didn’t have any answers, and I was so alone,” she continued. “That’s when Elise stopped being subtle.”
I turned toward her fully.
“She would corner me between classes,” Avery said. “Make sure I felt alone despite a crowd, and there were always thepeople who’d keep her secrets and wouldn’t breathe a word to my brother.”
My stomach twisted. “What did she say?”
“Whatever would hurt the most and rang closest to the truth,” she replied evenly. “That I was background. That I only mattered when you were there. That people tolerated me because I was attached to someone more interesting.”
Anger pressed against my ribs.
“She picked at everything,” Avery continued. “My clothes. My laugh. My family. She made it sound like observation as she pointed out flaws.” The wind lifted her hair again, but she didn’t brush it away. “If I reacted, she smiled. If I ignored her, she was relentless and pressed harder. If I walked away, she made sure I heard the last line.”
A cold, focused anger replaced the shock. Elise hadn’t just targeted me. She’d dismantled my friend.
“I started believing it,” she admitted.
The honesty in her voice hit harder than the words themselves.
“I second-guessed everything. The way I talked. The way I stood. Whether anyone actually wanted me around—that part was the hardest to ignore. I’m Chase’s twin, but the guys—they’re his friends. I am just background. Would they even miss me if I was gone?”
My throat constricted.
“She never left proof,” Avery went on. “It was always verbal. Always deniable.”
I had to swallow twice before I could get the words out. “And no one stepped in?”
“She never gave them a reason to.”
We walked a few more steps before she spoke again.
“There were days,” she continued carefully, “when I sat in my car before school and didn’t think I could make myself go inside.”