Celeste made plans to meet Sarina and Monique for coffee on Monday after school.

She was nervous and she hated it. There was no reason for Celeste to be scared, but she couldn't stop imagining how Sarina might react. And then she thought about how Rion asked her not to say anything to Sarina and how worried he’d looked…

Celeste agreed with Peter and the others. She knew that someone had to tell Sarina the truth. Rion was scared for Noa, but Celeste was sure that Sarina wouldn’t ever hurt him.

Sarina had a huge crush on Noa growing up. He would be safe. And maybe once Sarina knew the truth, she would be able to understand that what she was doing to Rion was wrong. Something good might come of it.

They met at the hotel. Monique and Sarina were already there when Celeste arrived. All three of them ordered coffee.

“Monique almost didn’t come,” Sarina complained to Celeste as soon as they were all comfortably seated. “She was all ‘sounds boring to me’. I almost had to beg.”

“It does sound boring,” Monique said. “There’s so many things we could be doing other than having coffee. Like setting fireworks off behind the school.”

“You probably shouldn’t do that,” Celeste said, glancing between them, wondering if Monique was serious. “You could get in trouble.”

“Trouble is fun,” Monique said, “most of the time.”

“Well, we’re hanging out and that’s what matters, right?” Sarina said. “It would be nice if Jolie could come too, but…I get it. You guys have family stuff going on.”

“I wouldn’t mind if you invited her,” Celeste said. “But I don’t think she would be happy to see me. It would be awkward.”

“Yeah. I get that,” Sarina said. “So, are we just hanging out? You sounded weird over the phone. And you mentioned that you had something to tell me.”

Celeste hesitated. She wasn’t sure she wanted to dive into the topic of the friendship bracelets just yet. She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to think of what to say. Maybe she should address the bullying first?

“Um… Peter said some things,” Celeste began. “He said that you, Eric, and Kyle… He caught you guys attacking Rion. Is that true?”

Monique groaned. “Oh my God, Sarina. Again?”

“Shut up,” Sarina snapped at her, obviously annoyed at being called out. “We didn’t attack Rion. We ran into him on our way home from school and he was a dick to us. We started arguing, that’s all. No one did anything to Rion.”

“Peter said you were calling him names…like fag and queer,” Celeste said. She shrank down as she spoke, her voice growing small. Her heart was straining in her chest, but she knew she couldn’t gloss over this. “Peter said that when Rion talked back, Eric looked like he was going to punch him in the face. You’re saying…that didn’t happen?”

Sarina flushed a dark shade of red and Monique was rolling her eyes, as if she’d heard this story a million things before.

“That was between Eric and Rion,” Sarina said. “I didn’t call Rion any of that stuff. That’s all bullshit guy talk. And Rion said the same things to Eric so it’s not like he’s innocent.”

“That’s not what Peter said,” Celeste told her.

Sarina threw up her hands. “Well, Peter fucking hates me! What do you expect?”

“Peter’s upset with you because he doesn’t like how you’re acting,” Celeste said. “Sarina, I want to be on your side, but didn’t we talk about this already? Didn’t you agree that things were maybe going too far? I thought… I thought we were on the same page.”

“I don’t control what Eric and Kyle do, okay?” Sarina said. “I was just hanging out with them. They were the ones who wanted to pick a fight. They’re dicks.”

“Sarina, don’t be so boring,” Monique told her. “We all know that you hang out with Eric and Kyle because they want to pick on Rion. There’s no other reason for you to hang out with them. They’re literally the worst assholes in the entire school and everyone hates them.”

“That’s not it!” Sarina hissed at her. “That’s not true at all! Why are you turning on me all of sudden?!”

“Because I’m tired of having to scream for a teacher like a goody-two-shoes every time Eric kicks Rion into the dirt,” Monique said. “It’s boring. It’s all so fucking boring. I miss when we used to actually do fun things. Not this stupid shit with Eric and Kyle. You’re always running around with them now. Even Jolie is sick of it and we all know how bad her taste is.”

“Is it my fault that Rion’s a dick?” Sarina said. “You’ve seen how he acts, Monique! You’ve heard the shit he says!”

“Rion could say ‘hi’ to you and you’d twist it around into an insult,” Monique huffed. “Leave me out of your boring shit.”

Celeste sat, eyes darting back and forth as she sipped at her coffee, watching the argument play out. She’d never seen Monique argue about anything before. She was really shy when she was little and she’d grown up to be cool and indifferent, not seeming to care about anything. Celeste was a little jealous, since it was something she struggled to overcome. She had no idea how Monique did it.

But Monique didn’t seem so bad. Especially with how she presented her arguments against Sarina. She seemed to be on Celeste’s side. It was amazing. Maybe Sarina would be easier to convince if Monique was calling her out too.

“Fine. Whatever,” Sarina huffed and turned back to Celeste. “So, is that why you came here? To shit on me and defend Rion? Because if that’s the case, I think we’re done here.”

“There’s something else,” Celeste said. “Um… Peter found something out. About Noa and Rion.”

Talking about it still made her squirm. She was uncomfortable. She didn’t want to say anything. But Sarina needed to know. She had to tell her.

“Noa and Rion?” Sarina repeated. “What, did something happen?”

“Kind of…” Celeste said. She hesitated again, before coming out with it. “Rion didn’t wreck his friendship bracelet. It was Noa.”

Sarina stared at her, frozen for a moment. It took a bit to process the words and understand what was being said.

“Rion… What? No,” Sarina said. “That can’t be… No. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Celeste took a small breath before filling in the details. “Apparently…Noa was upset and he cut up his bracelet. Rion took it from him, and… Noa even hurt him accidentally. Rion was keeping the wrecked bracelet for him. That’s when you found it and thought it was his. But Rion still has his bracelet. I mean, I haven’t seen it yet, but I don’t need to. Noa told us the truth himself.”

“That…but…. No,” Sarina said, still struggling with the concept. Her eyes were too wide. “No, that can’t… That can’t be right. That’s… It was in Rion’s room. I didn’t see his bracelet on his wrist. I thought… It had to be…”

“You made a mistake,” Celeste said. “Noa admitted to everything and Rion did too. Peter found both bracelets. The truth is that after you accused Rion, he lied to protect Noa.”

“Protect… What?” Sarina said. “I would never hurt Noa! If Noa did it… I mean, we all know how he is. Noa was hurt and upset and… Noa wasn’t okay! Of course I would have forgiven him. It was different with Rion because he’s always been a massive dick!”

“But Rion was never like that,” Celeste said. “He didn’t do anything wrong. You… Just think about it for a second, Sarina.”

“I am!” she said. “But it doesn’t… It doesn’t make sense! Why would Rion… Noa didn’t say anything before!”

“I’m not sure he even knew about Rion and the bracelets,” Celeste said. “Sarina…”

She trailed off when Monique let out a snort of laughter. They both turned to her and Monique put a hand over her mouth, turning her head away.

“What the fuck, Monique! It isn’t funny!” Sarina snapped.

“It’s super fucking funny,” Monique said and had to pause to muffle another giggle. “You’ve been treating Rion like shit and this whole time he’s been playing white knight, protecting your crush from you! Oh god, that’s hilarious!”

Sarina blushed a deep shade of red in shame. She gave Monique a light punch to the shoulder to show her frustration but that just made Monique giggle even harder, hiding her face with both hands.

“I fucking hate you,” Sarina said and turned back to Celeste. “Okay. Fine. Fucking… That just means Rion is a liar, which I already knew.”

Celeste stared at her in disbelief. “You don’t even feel a little bit bad that–”

“Of course I do!” Sarina said, blushing an even deeper shade of red. “I fucked up! I should have known something was up when Rion went along with things. He’s a liar and a dick and… I mean, okay, he didn’t wreck the stupid bracelet. But he’s still been a total asshole for years! That didn’t change.”

“Sarina, he’s been that way because he was protecting Noa,” Celeste said. “He really, really thought you were going to hurt him! He was almost begging us to keep the truth from you because he was afraid about what would happen! And now even Peter doesn’t want you around Noa. Everyone…everyone has agreed to call the police on you if you keep bullying people.”

It was a shock to Sarina. She sat back, wide eyed.

“I… You can’t call the cops on me!” she said. “I haven’t done anything!”

“According to Peter, Rion’s got bruises all over from you and your friends,” Celeste said, wanting to make the gravity of the situation clear. “He’s scared you’ll kill Rion accidentally! This is really, really serious and you have to start caring! I want to be your friend but I can’t if you really think it’s okay to beat Rion up!”

Celeste realized belatedly that she’d lost her cool. Sarina was staring at her wide-eyed and even Monique had stopped giggling to stare at her. She could feel the heat rising to her face but she didn’t regret what she said. All of it was true.

“It…it’s not that bad, though,” Sarina stammered. “It’s not… It’s really not that bad. Rion… He does things too, and… I don’t want to get arrested or some shit! I turn eighteen in December and Eric is already… He could go to actual jail!”

“If he’s going around and beating people up, maybe he deserves to go to jail,” Celeste said, but she looked away.

Her eyes were stinging. She was getting too emotional.

“Oh…oh, yes please…” Monique said, breathless. “I’d love it if Eric went to jail. That would be perfect.”

“Oh my god, it wouldn’t,” Sarina hissed at her.

“It totally would,” Monique said. “He really does deserve it. Celeste is right. Eric is a retarded douchebag who’s always doing dumb shit. Nobody likes him because he’s a huge fucking asshole. Jail might smarten him up.”

“That’s… I… I don’t know,” Sarina said. “This is… I want to hear it from Noa. I want to hear it from him that he did it. None of us can believe Rion…”

“No one is letting you near Noa,” Celeste said. “Peter is even going to tell his parents what happened. Everyone is really upset. This got way out of hand, Sarina.”

“But it’s not even that bad,” Sarina said. “It’s not… It’s not like that. I… Rion did stuff too…”

“If you really believe that then maybe Danny was right,” Celeste said. “Maybe we can’t be friends.”

She felt mean saying it, but it was true. Celeste hated the way Sarina was talking and she hated how dismissive she was.

“No! No, I want to be your friend!” Sarina said. “I… You know what? I need time. I need to think about things. I just… I don’t even know what to think. This is all fucked up.”

“Okay,” Celeste said. “If you need time…okay. I can understand that. Please think about it, Sarina. Really think about what you’re doing.”

“Okay,” Sarina said, but she seemed lost as she said it. “Okay, I’ll try.”