Peter received several calls from Danny on Saturday to arrange for a meetup on Sunday. Somehow, Danny managed to get a date and time for a little get-together with everyone in the afternoon.

“It’s kind of about Rion and Sarina,” Danny had told Peter over the phone. “I’m working on getting them to apologize to each other but this whole thing has been crazy and Rion wants people there… Please, don’t bring Noa.”

There was no chance of him bringing Noa. Peter didn’t want him anywhere near Sarina. He’d seen how she’d treated Rion.

Peter had conflicted feelings about Rion. After Amber died and they found out about the wrecked friendship bracelet, Rion had stopped calling and coming over. Rion had all but abandoned Noa when he needed him the most.

Noa had been a mess. Peter was heartbroken himself and grieved when Amber died, but Noa never recovered. He didn’t want to eat and he’d either never sleep or sleep for days. He stopped talking, he hid away in his room, he had nightmares that would wake the whole household with his screaming. And he had panic attacks, and…

Noa hadn’t been that extreme when he moved in with them. He’d been quiet but it hadn’t taken long before he started opening up to them. Yes, he’d always been a little weird and he didn’t talk much…

Obviously, there were serious issues left over from his parents. Obviously, Noa had problems. But Amber’s death had broken him.

It was easy to be mad at Rion for leaving Noa when Noa needed support. Peter had been so frustrated and upset with him. But those feelings had dulled with time.

And then there was the get-together from the other day…

Noa was so eager to see Rion. He’d been almost normal again, more like his old self than he’d been in years. There were no hard feelings. Noa seemed thrilled to see Rion. And Rion seemed guilty about his absence. In fact, it felt like Rion wanted to see Noa too. If that was the case, what was stopping him from coming over before?

Peter was beginning to think that something else was going on. And it probably had to do with Sarina.

He’d only witnessed Sarina’s treatment of Rion a few times, but it was bad. He’d seen her hit Rion without any reservation. He’d seen her kick him and he’d seen Rion bleed. He only caught them fighting a few times, but Sarina was always the instigator. It wasn’t at all like the rumours claimed – that Rion picked on Sarina.

Peter wasn’t okay with it. Not even a little. If he had any say, Sarina wasn’t coming anywhere near Noa. Not when she was okay with beating the shit out of people.

The idea of trying to fix Sarina and Rion’s relationship seemed like an effort in vain. Peter didn’t believe it was possible. But if they were both agreeing to come and apologize, well…

Peter would rather witness it than hear about it. He made sure his schedule was clear and showed up at the park on Sunday afternoon.

The sky was grey and overcast when he arrived. It looked like it was going to rain. Peter hadn’t brought an umbrella, deciding to risk the weather.

He wasn’t the first one there. Jesse and Celeste were hanging around near the swings when Peter arrived. He gave them a wave and they waved back.

“Hi,” he said. “Guess we’re early.”

“I expected Danny to be here first,” Celeste said. “He’s usually the early one.”

“He’ll be here,” Jesse said with confidence. “I think he said he was coming with Rion.”

“I wouldn’t blame Rion for dragging his feet,” Peter said. “They might be late.”

It was strange being together like this. Peter shuffled his feet, looking around at the gloomy, empty park. When he was younger, Celeste and Jesse had been the two people closest to Amber. Peter had been the younger brother, a kid in their eyes. Now that they were older, out of school…

It was different. Those age boundaries didn’t feel the same. A two-year age gap seemed a lot smaller than it used to.

“I made sure my afternoon was clear,” Celeste said. “I don’t mind if they’re late. This feels important.”

Jesse nodded in agreement. “I’m not sure how Danny’s going to make this work though. I mean…I’m still trying to understand this whole thing with Rion. But I think Amber would’ve wanted us to get along, so…”

“She would have,” Peter agreed with a nod. “She’d have called Sarina out a million times over by now.”

“I talked to Sarina the other day, actually,” Celeste said. “She helped me carry some stuff home. She was thinking about making peace with Rion, so…maybe it will work out?”

“You saw Rion’s black eye,” Peter said. “Sarina hits him. It’s not going to be easy for them to work things out.”

“An apology is a start,” Celeste said, but she glanced down as she said it, her own doubt obvious.

“Danny really got me thinking about it,” Jesse added. “And Danny used to be best friends with Sarina. If anyone can work things out between them, it’s him.”

Peter wasn’t so sure. He still remembered pulling Sarina off Rion that one time, of Rion looking up at him with glassy eyes and a bloodied nose. Peter remembered yelling at Sarina, asking what was wrong with her and her whole argument being, “It looks worse than it is! He just did a face-plant!” She didn’t even acknowledge that she’d been chasing Rion or that she’d pounced on him the moment he’d fallen.

Of course, when he’d tried to talk to Rion and ask if he was okay, Rion told him to fuck off. So, Peter had listened and left him alone. At the time, he figured that if Rion didn’t want his help, then maybe he should stay out of it. He already had Noa to worry about anyway…

Maybe he should have worried about Rion more. Maybe staying out of it had been a mistake.

“Hey!”

Calling out to them was Sarina. She came over by herself, hands stuffed in the pockets of a heavy jean jacket. She looked chilly but it was probably because for whatever reason, she had chosen to wear shorts.

Peter crossed his arms and turned away. He didn’t want to talk to her, didn’t even want to acknowledge her unless he had to. The others didn’t feel the same.

“Hi, Sarina,” Celeste said, waving.

“Hey,” Jesse added. “You didn’t see Rion or Danny on your way here, did you?”

“Nope,” Sarina said, joining them. “Hi, Peter.”

As much as he would like to ignore her, he felt the social pressure weighing on him.

“Hi,” he said stiffly.

There was a brief, awkward pause. Spending time together like this had become unfamiliar.

“Danny said you guys were coming,” Sarina finally began, rocking on her heels. “I don’t know why we’re making a big deal out of it. But, hey, I guess this way Rion can apologize to us all at once.”

“Apologize?” Jesse said.

“He doesn’t need to apologize to me,” Celeste added.

“Um, guys, hello? Are you forgetting about his friendship bracelet?” Sarina asked, waving a hand. “I mean, come on. That kind of involves all of us.”

Celeste spared an uncertain glance at both Jesse and Peter. Jesse frowned, considering what Sarina was saying.

Peter had been upset when he found out about the bracelet. It was only natural. Amber, Celeste, and Sarina had worked on those bracelets together and Rion’s had been made by Amber personally. It was upsetting to find out that after Amber died, not even weeks after the funeral, Rion had already viciously cut up his bracelet and discarded it.

That hurt. Of course it did. Peter was barely fourteen at the time. His sister was dead. He was grieving and in pain. And Noa had completely broken down. Rion’s actions felt like a betrayal, and it weighed heavily as time passed and Rion made no attempts to contact Noa, who was supposed to be his best friend.

Peter had been resentful about it for a long time, until he noticed how Sarina was treating Rion. While he still had a negative opinion about him, the anger bled out into frustration.

Six years was a long time to be angry at anyone.

“I get what you’re saying but…” Jesse began, trailing off.

“Rion was wrong to cut up his bracelet,” Peter said. “But it’s his bracelet. He has the right to do whatever he wants with it.”

Sarina blinked rapidly, taken aback.

“I… That’s not the point,” she said. “He…”

“Wait, wait,” Celeste said. “He’s here. Him and Danny.”

Celeste waved a hand, and they were able to spot them. Danny and Rion had finally turned up, walking together. Danny was smiling, chatting to Rion about something.

Peter had seen Rion the other day at their get-together, but he was still uncomfortable with his appearance. Rion was small like Noa, and maybe a bit thinner. It was hard to tell, especially today with the oversized jacket Rion was wearing. He was swimming in it, hands stuffed in his pockets.

“Hi, guys,” Danny greeted them with a wave.

There was a chorus of greetings from all of them at once. Sarina was staring Rion down the whole time, and he met her gaze, refusing to speak first.

“So…we’re doing this whole thing again, I guess,” Sarina said.

“Again?” Rion said. “I don’t think we’ve ever apologized to each other.”

“No, I mean… We’re all here together again,” Sarina said, spreading her arms out to gesture at the group. “It’s like when you cut up your bracelet.”

Rion snorted. “It’s not even close to being the same.”

“Hey, uh, guys?” Danny cut in. “I don’t want to interrupt before we’re even really started but, like, I have a couple of things that I want to…uh… Can I ask you some stuff, Sarina?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. What is it?”

Danny shuffled his feet. He looked like he regretted speaking up but he didn’t have much of a choice now. He took a breath and let it out fast.

“Have you been ganging up on Rion with your friends?”

The answer was in Peter’s mind before Danny even finished speaking. Yes. Sarina and Rion both knew the truth too. Rion shifted, lips pressing into a thin line, and Sarina sputtered, not expecting Danny to call her out.

Jesse and Celeste were the only ones who jolted in surprise.

“Wh-what? No!” Sarina said. “It’s not like that!”

Peter snorted in disbelief at the outright lie and Rion’s expression hardened.

“Danny, what… Why would you ask that?” Jesse said.

“Rion told me Eric was holding him down for Sarina when she gave him his black eye,” Danny said. “So, Sarina…you’re saying that’s a lie?”

“Rion went feral on me!” Sarina snapped, glaring at Rion. “You saw the bruise he gave me! Eric was just holding him back to protect me!”

“Rion said he only hit you when he got his arm free from Eric,” Danny said.

“Yeah, he did. Because he was losing his shit!” Sarina said. “How many times do I have to explain this to you?!”

“That’s not what happened,” Rion said.

His voice was low. He was sinking further into his coat, staring at Sarina with mismatched eyes.

“Oh, sure, of course,” Sarina said with a hard roll of her eyes. “You’re just going to stand there and call me a liar. What else did I expect?”

“Hey,” Danny said. “Why don’t we hear both sides of the story? That’s fair, isn’t it?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Rion said.

“You’re really going to say that after calling me a liar?” Sarina said.

Rion opened his mouth, closed it, then glanced to the side. He heaved a breath, looking like he would rather be anywhere else.

“I think we should hear both sides of the story,” Jesse spoke up.

“Me too,” Celeste said.

“All right. Cool. Fine! Then let Rion tell his version,” Sarina said. “Go ahead, Rion. Better make it a good story.”

Rion’s mouth twisted unhappily as he hesitated.

“Okay. All right…” he said, reaching up to scrub at the side of his neck. “We were heading out for recess. Sarina shoved me from behind, so I told her to fuck off. Eric came out of nowhere and dragged me off, going on about how that’s not how I should talk to a girl. So, I told him to fuck off too. Eric shoved me into Monique and Jolie. Jolie started freaking out and then Sarina went off about how I’m trying to attack them even though Eric was the one who pushed me…

“Then Eric grabbed me again. I didn’t know what he was doing, so I tried to get away. Sarina said she was going to give me a taste of my own medicine and then she punched me in the face. That’s when I got my arm free and hit her. Eric shoved me down and started kicking me and then Monique shrieked for a teacher.

“That’s pretty much it,” Rion said, shuffling his feet.

They were silent as his words sunk in.

Peter expected it to be bad, but still…hearing about it from Rion, who said the words with cold, hard indifference…

“That’s not how it happened,” Sarina said, puffing up as much as she could. Her whole face was red. “You’re a liar.”

“Whatever,” Rion said, not looking at her.

“There’s an easy way to prove him wrong,” Peter said. “Ask the other kids at school. There must be witnesses. It was recess.”

Sarina whirled around to him with wide eyes. Peter met her gaze coldly.

He knew Rion was telling the truth and so did Sarina.

“No… No, that wouldn’t work,” Sarina said. “We can’t ask…”

“You really did all that to Rion?” Danny asked, his expression pained.

“That–! No!” Sarina sputtered. “I haven’t even told my side of the story yet! God! Why are you just eating up whatever Rion says?! Give me a chance to speak!”

“Then…what happened?” Celeste asked, her expression pinched in concern.

Celeste had always been a kind person, like Danny. She obviously didn’t want to hear any of this.

“Okay…Okay, so it’s not at all like what Rion said,” Sarina said, taking a breath. “Rion shoved me when we were going out for recess. I asked him what his problem was, and he started to lose his shit on me, calling me names and getting up in my face. Eric pinned him down because he was being all crazy and then Rion wiggled free somehow just so that he could hit me. We were all freaking out and I hit him back in self-defence. That was when Monique started calling for help. We didn’t know what else to do!”

Sarina huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Her version was similar to Rion’s, only...it didn’t make sense. At least, it didn’t make sense to Peter. Rion wasn’t someone who freaked out and lashed out. He’d never done anything like that before.

Rion was a quiet kid, kind of like Noa. He was more the kind of person who would stand there, stare you down, and tell you off. The person Sarina described wasn’t anything like Rion.

“You’re saying that Rion lashed out at you?” Jesse asked. “For no reason?”

“I don’t know what goes on in his head,” Sarina said. “He’s crazy!”

“That doesn’t sound like Rion to me,” Peter said. “And I still say that if we want to prove it, we should just ask the kids at school. Everyone will have seen the whole thing.”

“You can ask Eric, Monique, and Jolie!” Sarina said. “They’ll know – they were there too!”

“They’re…kind of biased though, aren’t they?” Celeste said, averting her gaze when Sarina turned to her.

“You’re kind of acting guilty, Sarina,” Jesse said. “If your story is true, you should be agreeing with Peter. The other kids at school should be able to back up your story.”

“They should,” Sarina growled, balling up her hands into fists at her sides. “But some people have grudges against me or my friends. Some kids make things up to be dicks to us! You don’t get how it is.”

“People have grudges against you and your friends because you’re bullies,” Peter said. “I’ve seen the kinds of things you do. You get worse every year.”

Jesse and Celeste were staring at him. He understood why. They were out of the loop. Jesse and Celeste were four years older than Rion and Sarina. They’d graduated and gone on with their lives. Peter had spent two extra years in school with Sarina and Rion. He had a better idea of how things had changed for the worse.

“We aren’t bullies,” Sarina said. “We just like to have fun and do our own thing. Other people don’t get us! It’s this narrow-minded, small town fucking attitude.”

“You said you hit Rion in self-defence after he got his arm free and hit you,” Peter said. “Even in your own story, he was still partially incapacitated by Eric. How is that fair? How is that self-defence?”

“I was scared, okay? We all were!” Sarina said. “Rion was acting like some kind of rabid animal! God, what else could we do? Should we just have let him attack us?”

“Look at Rion. I don’t think he’s capable of beating anyone up. And you’re saying there were four of you. It also wouldn’t be the first time I’ve caught you attacking Rion with your friends so don’t give me any of your bullshit,” Peter said. “Even if Rion was freaking out that badly, why didn’t you call for a teacher right away?”

“Monique did!” Sarina said. “She was calling for help from the beginning!”

“Whoa, whoa… Let’s back up a second,” Danny said. “Peter, you’ve seen Sarina picking on Rion before?”

“Yes. And I put a stop to it before too,” Peter said.

“You never mentioned that,” Celeste said.

“We don’t hang out like we used to,” Peter said. “We don’t talk like we used to.”

And honestly, he was sad that his connection with Jesse and Celeste had faded over time. They would still see each other and greet each other but they used to be a lot closer. They used to spend so much time with Amber. He used to see them all the time.

Now it was different. They weren’t kids anymore. They had their own lives. And Amber wasn’t there to connect them.

“Are you talking about the time Rion got a bloody nose?” Sarina said. Her voice had risen several octaves. “Peter, I told you he fell on his face! I didn’t do anything to him!”

“You were chasing him and you pounced on him when he fell,” Peter said. “If I hadn’t interrupted, who knows what would have happened. You were dragging him up by his collar, choking him–”

“I was not! He was fine! It wasn’t like that!” Sarina said. “Why are you making a big deal out of nothing! Stop acting like I’m the bad guy here!”

“Rion?” Jesse spoke up. “Do you remember what happened that time?”

Rion had been quiet for a while now, Peter realized. He was watching them argue back and forth. At Jesse’s question, he shrugged.

“That time with the bloody nose?” he said. “I can barely remember. Sarina was chasing me or whatever. Peter interrupted and I told him to fuck off.”

“See? He doesn’t even care!” Sarina said. “We’ve gotten completely off topic with all this bullshit anyway! This was supposed to be about apologizing.”

“Okay…okay, you know what? Let’s get on track then,” Danny said. “We can work with this! Forget about the bloody nose thing for now – we’ll get back to that. You hit each other in both your stories about this whole black eye thing. Neither one of you is denying that you hurt each other. Who’s fault it is… You know, let’s just forget about that too for a second. You guys shouldn’t be hurting each other at all, ever. So maybe you could do what you both agreed to and…you two can start by apologizing to each other for that fight. Okay?”

Sarina scoffed and sneered, obviously hating the idea. Rion stared at Danny for a moment before letting out a soft, bitter laugh.

“Apologize… Right,” he huffed. “Yeah. Seems fair.”

“I knew you wouldn’t do it,” Sarina said to him. “I knew you were full of shit–”

“Hold on,” Rion cut her off. She tried to keep going but he spoke over her. “I’m going to apologize.”

Sarina fell silent. Her expression was bordering on smug, but she had her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Sarina…” he said. “I’m sorry that I hit you. And I was rude to you too because I told you to fuck off. So…I’m sorry for saying that too. I’m sorry for hurting you. That was wrong.”

Peter felt his eyebrows rise. He was surprised and a little impressed that Rion would stand there and say that. He even sounded sincere.

Sarina pinched her lips together. She looked like she wanted to say something but, with a glance Danny’s way, she thought better of whatever she had in mind.

“Fine,” she said. “I’m sorry I hit you. Is that what you want to hear, Danny?”

“It’s a start,” Danny said. “What do you think, Rion?”

“Yeah. Sure. It’s something,” Rion said.

There was an awkward pause. It seemed like no one was satisfied by the situation or the apologies.

“Well…we can work with this…right?” Danny said hopefully, looking between them. Then he spared a desperate glance at his other friends.

“Those were apologies…” Jesse conceded but the look on his face captured how Peter was feeling – completely doubtful that anything was near being resolved.

“Maybe we should leave it there for today?” Celeste said. “It might be better to do this in small pieces. It…um… I think we have some things to think about.”

“No, there’s one more apology that I want,” Sarina said. “There’s only one apology that actually means anything. The friendship bracelet. I want to hear you say you’re sorry for cutting it up, Rion.”

Rion took a breath and let it out through his nose.

“Can’t you let that go, Sarina?” Peter asked. “It was six years ago.”

“How can you say that?! Amber was your sister!” Sarina hissed.

Peter scowled, clenching his fists at his sides. He wanted to respond but he clenched his jaw instead. He didn’t want to say something he would regret later.

Danny stepped forward. “Sarina–”

“Don’t,” Rion cut him off.

“We all deserve an apology for those bracelets!” Sarina continued.  “I want to hear it from Rion!”

Danny looked like he wanted to say something, but this time he turned to Rion first. They all did. Rion crossed his arms over his chest as he met Sarina’s gaze.

“No,” Rion said.

“Why the fuck not?” Sarina demanded.

“I’m not going to apologize for something I’m not sorry for.”

The words were a surprise and, despite everything, they stung. It made Peter hesitate, not expecting Rion’s answer at all. In fact, everyone hesitated.

Sarina was the first to recover.

“You–!” she snarled and lunged.

Rion was the only one who reacted fast enough, probably out of reflex. He tried to leap back and get out of reach, but he stumbled. He would have fallen backwards but Sarina grabbed him by a fist full of hair, wrenching him forward. She grappled with him, and in the ensuing scuffle of hair pulling, hitting, and kicking, they ended up falling to the ground in a violent heap.

Rion let out a sharp cry of pain when they went down. Sarina screamed over him as she ground him into the dirt.

“You piece of shit!”

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Danny cried out. “What are you doing?!”

Celeste let out a strangled sound of shock but was frozen in place, wide eyed. Jesse and Danny both leapt forward to stop the fighting and Peter hurried to help.

“Stop it!” Jesse said, snatching one of Sarina’s arms.

Peter grasped Sarina firmly by the collar of her jacket, grabbing her other arm and restraining it before forcefully pulling her up. It took all his strength and Jesse’s help to pull her off Rion. Once they had her on her feet, Jesse and Peter kept a firm hold on her, dragging her back.

Peter had some experience with martial arts, but he was more familiar with facing sparing opponents than he was hauling teenage girls to their feet. Once Sarina was upright, he was able to get a better grip on her. He didn’t want to try and put her in a proper hold, not wanting to risk letting her go for even a second.

Sarina was livid. She was red faced and thrashing angrily, hissing and spitting like an animal.

“Let go of me! Get off me!” Sarina shrieked.

“Not until you calm down!” Peter said, which only made her thrash harder.

“Fuck you!” Sarina snarled. “You’re ganging up on me and siding with that lying little asshole! I should have known! This is fucking horse shit!”

Danny was helping Rion to his feet. The attack was brief, but Rion was pale and unsteady. He was grimacing in pain.

“What is wrong with you, Sarina!” Jesse said. “You can’t just fly off the handle and attack people!”

“Did you not hear him?! Did you not hear what he said?! Rion isn’t even sorry!” Sarina shrieked. “He doesn’t even care!”

“That’s…that’s not an excuse to hurt him,” Celeste said.

She had come over to hover next to Rion in concern. She was shaky, trembling, looking between all of them, her face drained of colour.

“We should take Sarina home,” Peter said. “She’s lost it.”

“I have not!” Sarina cried, kicking her feet.

“Just let her go.”

The suggestion came from Rion of all people. He wasn’t looking at anyone and he still seemed to be in pain, shoulders stiff and tense.

“Let her go?” Danny repeated. “Rion, she’s trying to attack you!”

“Holding her down is just going to piss her off more,” Rion said. “It’s fine. Whatever.”

“That’s right! Get off me!” Sarina added, thrashing.

Peter exchanged an unhappy, tense glance with Jesse. Sarina wasn’t strong enough to free herself from their grip, but they both had second thoughts about releasing her.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jesse said.

“I’m not gonna fucking touch him!” Sarina said.

“You can’t hold her like that all day,” Rion said. “Just… Please.”

“That’s right! Get off!” Sarina shrieked.

“…Fine,” Jesse said but he turned to Peter for confirmation.

Peter didn’t want to let go but when he met Jesse’s gaze, he could tell that he was ready to stop Sarina a second time if she lunged at Rion again. Reluctantly, Peter gave him a nod and Jesse returned it.

They let Sarina go but made sure to physically put themselves between her and Rion. Sarina stumbled back, puffing angrily. She glowered at them, looking like she might like to have a go at them instead. Luckily, she had enough sense to back off.

“You guys are all assholes!” she snarled. “You just wanna gang up on me and side with that prick! I can’t believe this!”

“You’re delusional,” Peter told her, a bitter, disbelieving laugh escaping him.

“What the hell, Sarina. You can’t really think it’s okay to just go around beating on someone like that,” Jesse added.

“Rion isn’t just any normal person! He’s an asshole!” Sarina said. “He’s a fucking two-faced, back-stabber! He cut up his friendship bracelet without a shred of remorse and he doesn’t even care about Amber! And he was there when she died! How fucked up is that?! How could anyone be like that?! Fuck him!”

“Sarina,” Danny spoke up. “I… I don’t want to say this but I think you need to go home and…and think about stuff.”

“What do you mean? What are you talking about?” she said. “I’m the one who’s right! What kind of friends are you?! You all know that I’m right!”

“I mean… I… Sarina… I don’t think we can be friends,” Danny said, and it looked like it physically hurt him to say. “I can’t… Not when you’re like this. I’m sorry.”

“You…you what?” Sarina said.

Sarina was caught off guard, deflating at the shock of what she was hearing. Danny couldn’t meet her gaze. Peter had never seen him look so uncomfortable.

“Just…just go home and…cool off or something,” Danny said. “Maybe…you’ll understand later. I don’t know.”

Even Peter hadn’t expected Danny to outright reject Sarina like that. Maybe it was the fact that he’d been the one to put the effort into setting all this up only for everything to come crumbling down.

“You…but… I didn’t do anything wrong!” Sarina said.

“If you really believe that, then I don’t think there’s anything else I have to say to you,” Danny said with a grimace. “Sorry. Really. I… I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

“No,” Rion spoke up, shaking his head. “Wait. Stop it, Danny.”

“Don’t worry about it, Rion,” Danny said. “We should probably get you home. I’m really, really sorry about what Sarina did…”

“I didn’t even hurt him that bad!” Sarina protested.

Sarina looked frantic and Danny was radiating disappointment. Peter, Celeste, and Jesse had no idea what to do. But Rion had a strange look of resolve on his face.

“Sarina’s right,” he said.

“What? What do you mean?” Danny said. “Sarina’s not right! She hurt you!”

“But she was right to hurt me,” Rion said, closing his eyes for a second. He looked pale and nauseous. “She’s not wrong about anything. I’m an asshole and a liar and a prick…”

“No! No, you’re not any of those things!” Danny insisted. “That’s not true. Why are you saying that?”

“I cut up my friendship bracelet and I’m not sorry,” Rion said.

“See!” Sarina crowed. “He knows! He gets it! Why does Rion fucking get it and the rest of you don’t?”

“Because we know this is wrong,” Danny snapped at her before turning back to Rion. “You don’t have to be sorry about the bracelet, okay? Yeah, it hurts that you did it, but everyone copes with things differently. That doesn’t make you a bad person.”

Rion opened his mouth and closed it again. He looked down, his lips twisting like he’d bitten into a lemon.

“I am a bad person,” Rion said. “If you’re choosing between me and Sarina, Danny, then please choose Sarina.”

“That’s not what this is,” Danny said. “I’m not choosing between you.”

“I don’t care what it is,” Rion said. “I don’t want to do this anymore. It was a stupid idea and I never should have agreed to it. I should have known better. Now everyone’s miserable and it’s my fault for not putting a stop to it.”

“We’re not miserable,” Celeste spoke up. “Rion…you were attacked. I think you should sit down for a second…”

“Doesn’t anyone care that Rion’s agreeing with me?” Sarina said. “Hello? He’s saying I’m right!”

“Go home, Sarina,” Jesse said. “You’re not helping anyone right now.”

“We need to sort everything out,” Peter added, agreeing wholeheartedly with Jesse. “This is a mess.”

“But Rion’s saying that I’m right!” Sarina said.

“After you attacked him,” Peter said. “I don’t trust what he’s saying. Or what you’re saying. Go away.”

Sarina snarled at him. Peter thought she might lash out. Instead, she relented, backing away in the direction of her home.

“Fine! Fuck all of you!” she spat. “You can be Rion’s friends even though he doesn’t give a shit about you or Amber or anything! Go ahead! Go be a pack of fucking idiots together! You’re all dead to me!”

She flipped them the bird, waving her whole arm aggressively at them, before storming off.

Peter felt like he could finally relax and in his peripheral vision, Jesse’s shoulders dropped in relief.

“I can’t believe her…” Danny said and turned to Rion. “Seriously, are you okay?”

“No,” Rion said. “I really wish you hadn’t said that.”

“Said what?” Danny asked.

“That you’re not her friend.”

“Rion, I can’t be her friend if she’s going to…” Danny started but then paused, grimacing as he waved a hand at Rion. “Look at what she did to you! How are you okay with that? Why would you defend her?”

“Because she’s right,” Rion said. “Look, I don’t want to explain it. I just want to go home. I hate all of this. I’m sick of fighting. I just… I’m tired, okay?”

“Okay,” Danny said. “Can I at least walk you home or something?”

“I don’t care,” Rion said.

He looked miserable. For the first time in a long time, Peter could only feel bad for him. It wasn’t quite pity, but it was something close. Peter felt like he was really seeing Rion’s situation for the first time. He looked hurt and tired and miserable, shoulders hunched in pain, face pale, his black eye standing out even more than before.

And Rion was saying he was an awful person and that Sarina was right… It reminded Peter of the things Noa said. It reminded him of the times that Noa would blame himself for Amber’s death.

Peter couldn’t leave Rion like this.

“Why don’t we go for coffee or something,” Peter suggested.

“…Coffee?” Rion said, glancing up. “I don’t feel like it.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Danny said.

“I’d also like to keep an eye on you for a bit, Rion,” Jesse added. “You didn’t hit your head or anything, right? I mean, I’m not a doctor, but… Maybe we should just make sure you’re okay before you go home.”

“You don’t have to order coffee. They do good milkshakes at the hotel,” Celeste added.

Peter wasn’t sure if it was because of what they’d all just witnessed but it felt right for them to try and show Rion some kind of support. He didn’t think anyone here would be fine with sending Rion home after watching Sarina attack him.

Rion heaved a breath. “Okay…fine. Coffee it is then. Whatever.”