The rumours over the course of the weekend were insane. Sarina could barely keep up.

Everyone was talking about how Noa and Rion had gotten into a fight on Friday. According to the rumours, the police had to go and break it up. And then an ambulance had been called because Noa and Rion almost killed each other in a knife fight.

Of course, Sarina didn’t believe every rumour. She certainly wasn’t about to buy into this one. They were saying Noa attacked Rion first, that he stabbed him, and that was for sure absolute bullshit.

She ignored most of the talk. Sarina was curious, but she was sure everyone was over exaggerating. She waited until Monday, prepared to confront Rion on what actually happened.

But Rion didn’t show up to school.

The rumours were getting even more wild, saying stuff about the hospital. There was even talk about the Murphys or the Blums suing each other. It was so fucking stupid.

It made Sarina want a smoke.

She went straight home, shrugging off her friends. Her parents weren’t in when she got there, and Travis’s truck was gone too. She dropped her backpack on the shoe rack and went straight to the phone, dialing Celeste’s number. Someone picked up right away.

“Hello?”

Oh. It was Sophie.

Sarina grimaced. Sophie held a grudge against her for years that had something to do with Jolie. They hadn’t gotten along since they were kids.

“Hi, Sophie!” Sarina said, forcing a smile and trying to be cheerful. It sounded fake even to her own ears. “It’s Sarina.”

“Oh,” came an immediate, flat response. “What do you want?”

Rude.

“Is Celeste there?” Sarina asked. “I want to talk to her for a second.”

“Does this have something to do with what happened to Rion and Noa?” Sophie asked. “Why don’t you just leave them alone? Noa’s obviously not okay and everyone knows you’re horrible to Rion and beat him up with your friends. It doesn’t matter that you’ve got the teachers on your side–”

“Can you just shut up?” Sarina cut her off, already fed up.

“Shut up? Sure thing, Sarina!” Sophie said.

And then she hung up on her.

Sarina held up the phone, staring at it incredulously. Did that little bitch seriously just…?

No. It was fine. It was okay. That was Sophie. Sarina should expect that kind of thing from her.

Sarina dialed the number again. And again. Her fourth try made her consider walking down to the farm and knocking on the door in person but finally, someone picked up. This time it was Celeste.

“Hello? Sarina?”

Sophie must have told her who was calling.

“Hi, Celeste,” Sarina said, dropping her fake tone. “I need to talk to you. Rumours have been going crazy at school. I was going to ask Rion what happened, but he wasn’t there today.”

“…What did you hear?”

“You name it,” Sarina huffed. “Everyone’s talking about how Noa and Rion got into some kind of fight and that the police were called. Someone even said Noa was waving a knife around or some dumb shit. I don’t know. The rumours are going wild. Did Rion do something? I swear to God, if he attacked Noa…”

She snarled, gripping the phone tighter at the thought. If Rion did anything to Noa, she’d forget about ever being nice to him again. He was dead fucking meat if he–

“Rion didn’t hurt Noa,” Celeste said.

“Good!” Sarina said. “Good. So what happened then? Did they actually get into a fight? Or is that bullshit too?”

Celeste was quiet for too long. She finally let out a breath and Sarina could hear shifting on the other end of the line.

“They got into a fight.”

Sarina clenched her free hand into a fist.

How could Rion do that? How?! How could anyone get into a fight with Noa! He was quiet and gentle and–! Noa didn’t deserve that after everything he’d been through!

Maybe she should teach Rion a lesson anyway. After all, they’d gotten into a fight…

“What did Rion do?” Sarina demanded. “What kind of fight was it? Were they yelling?”

“Sarina…”

“I swear, if Rion tried to hurt Noa in any way, I’m going to–”

“Sarina, stop!”

She listened to Celeste, falling silent. She was breathing heavily, already worked up.

“Noa started the fight,” Celeste said.

…

Sarina’s mind went completely blank. She stood there for too long. Her breath caught. She couldn’t make sense of what she was hearing. And Celeste kept going.

“Noa got really upset. He wasn’t okay. All of us were gone except for Danny. Noa started going on about how he shouldn’t have been born… He broke some glasses and picked up one of the shards. Danny made it sound like he was going to…to hurt himself. Rion jumped in and tried to wrestle the glass away from him. Sarina, Rion saved Noa. And he was hurt really badly. He’s all cut up. They’re both still in the hospital.”

In the hospital?

Rion saved Noa?

Glass?

Sarina stood there, holding the phone. Part of her didn’t understand, couldn’t understand. It didn’t make sense.

Noa…tried to hurt himself?

She could feel herself tearing up. Sarina took a breath, but it was too sharp. Her chest hurt.

And then came an overwhelming wave of guilt.

She’d been so ready to turn on Rion and beat the shit out of him all over again. She’d been so ready to blame him…

It was Noa. Noa was in danger and Rion saved him.

Holy fuck.

“Sarina?” Celeste said.

“Yeah, uh… Hi,” Sarina said, fumbling, trying to get herself in order. There were tears streaking down her face, but she managed to keep her voice steady as she wiped them away with her sleeve. “I… You’re sure that’s what happened? Noa… Did Noa really…?”

“Yes. I’m sure. Danny said that’s what happened, and he wouldn’t lie. Even Rion said the same thing. It’s been crazy…”

“Yeah. Fuck. Sorry,” Sarina said, sniffling. She looked up, taking a breath and willing the tears to stop. “So… They’re in the hospital. They got cut up? How did that happen?”

“There was broken glass all over the floor. They were rolling in it.”

“Oh, fucking… Shit. I… Wow. Okay. I didn’t… Yeah.”

“I know. It’s a lot.”

“Noa really tried to… He was trying to…” Sarina began but she couldn’t say it.

“We don’t know that he was trying to hurt himself, but… He had a piece of glass in his hands and the way he was talking… Danny was pretty sure it wouldn’t have ended well.”

“And Rion just…jumped in there,” Sarina said faintly.

“Yeah, he did. He’s hurt way worse than Noa.”

“Fuck.”

Sarina stood there for a minute. She tried to center herself but it wasn’t working. She was a mess.

Noa tried to kill himself and Rion saved him.

She’d wanted to hurt Rion when he’d actually been a hero.

It was crazy. She could barely believe any of it. But Celeste and Danny wouldn’t lie. She knew that.

“Hey, um…” Sarina began. “Could I… I know that Rion won’t want to see me or whatever, but… Um… If I gave you something to give to him, could you do that for me? And just, like, not say it’s from me.”

“I could,” Celeste said. “Why? What do you want to give him?”

“Just… I don’t know… Some get-well stuff?” Sarina said. “He still likes chocolate, right?”

“Why…? Sorry. I shouldn’t ask, but… Aren’t the two of you still…?”

“Things are weird,” Sarina said, sniffling again. “I tried to apologize, and I guess I fucked up. I… I feel bad. I just want to do something nice, okay?”

Maybe it was just the guilt talking, but Sarina didn’t care.

“I can give him something if you want me to,” Celeste finally said. “As long as it isn’t anything weird.”

“No, no. Just normal stuff,” Sarina said. “I’ll… You know what? I’ll look for something and I’ll meet up with you later. Sounds good?”

“Okay,” Celeste said. “Sounds good.”