When they sat down at a table, Jesse was strangely calm.

Some distant part of him was seething, but he was mostly numb to everything that was going on. His feelings were distant and muted, out of reach.

Maybe it was because he half expected Noa to say what he did. Maybe it was because he was emotionally prepared. He couldn’t say.

“Jesse, are you okay?” Celeste asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” he said. “Are you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yeah,” Danny spoke up. “Yeah, I feel… This is all messed up.”

Sarina snorted. “It was exactly what I expected him to say. It figures.”

“It’s still upsetting,” Celeste said.

“Of course it’s upsetting,” Sarina said. “But it makes total sense.”

“I don’t want to say that I’m happy it was an accident,” Danny said, “because I’m not happy about what happened to Amber. But I guess it’s kind of good to know that Noa and Rion weren’t trying to hurt her. And Rion didn’t just…you know…for no reason.”

Jesse raised a hand and gave it a wave. “I know what happened now and that’s good enough. Noa tried to get his arm free, Amber slipped…”

There was a sharp prickling in his chest at the thought. He tried not to dwell on it, but it was hard. It was impossible.

“As far as I’m concerned, she died instantly,” Jesse continued. “I don’t know if that’s true, but no one can prove that it didn’t happen. I want to think that it wasn’t Noa’s fault. He always blames himself. She probably… It was an accident, and what Rion did… He should never have done that to Amber, but she was… She wasn’t alive, and… He didn’t hurt her. She didn’t suffer. It was an accident.”

He didn’t have any more words for it. He couldn’t think about it past that.

Noa tried to get his arm free, Amber was off-balance and slipped off the path. She hit her head and died instantly.

That’s what he chose to believe. It gave him closure and it made the pain in his heart a little less intense.

“I don’t think that at all,” Sarina said.

“What?” Danny said, turning to blink at her.

“This whole thing is obviously Rion’s fault,” she said. “Amber slipped and fell, and maybe she was unconscious or whatever, but I’m sure that Rion electrocuted her.”

Jesse was stunned and Celeste articulated his thoughts before he could even formulate the words.

“Sarina! Why would you say that?!”

“Because that’s what I think is true!” Sarina said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Because Rion is just that stupid. I think he did it for Noa and everything was his fault.”

“Why? Why would you think that? That’s horrible!” Danny said. “It doesn’t even make sense!”

“It makes perfect sense to me,” Sarina said. “Noa would never do anything wrong. I mean, I do kinda agree with Jesse. I think that Amber slipped. And I think she was probably unconscious or whatever and, you know, didn’t suffer. But I think Rion killed her and he did it because he really, really loves Noa. I mean, I love Noa too, but… Even I wouldn’t have gone that far.”

Jesse could only stare at Sarina. He didn’t understand her way of thinking at all. It didn’t make sense to him. Her thoughts were alien to him. He had no words.

She was wrong. She had to be.

Jesse didn’t accept her reasoning. Not for a single second.

“What about the blood? Noa said there was blood everywhere,” Danny said. “You’re not doing this to go after Rion again, are you? Sarina, he’s already suicidal!”

“Of course I’m not going after him!” she said. “I’m done with that, okay? I just think he’s messed up. He’s a dick. But, you know, he’s a dick because he loves Noa. They’re like brothers or whatever. They’re just… It makes sense if you think about it.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Jesse said. “I don’t understand you at all…”

“I think Jesse’s right,” Celeste said. “I think… I think Amber slipped and fell. I think it was an accident…”

“Yeah. That makes sense to me,” Danny said. “Rion and Noa both had the same story. There were a few differences, but it’s basically the same thing. They both thought she was dead when they brought her into the cabin. And she was bleeding.”

“Believe what you want,” Sarina said. “You can’t prove me wrong, and I can’t prove you wrong. We’ll never really know.”

But Jesse was sure. He was sure he was right. Yes, he wanted to believe he was right, but he was so sure he knew the truth. It made the most sense.

He refused every part of Sarina’s mindset.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jesse said, his mind already made up.

“Doesn’t matter? What did I miss?”

Peter had returned. He rejoined them, pulling up a chair.

“Not much,” Sarina said.

“We were just talking about everything,” Jesse said. “I think that Amber slipped and hit her head and died instantly. It was an accident.”

“And I disagree,” Sarina said. “I think it was Rion’s fault.”

Peter stared at her, frowning. “I don’t know where you got that idea. I thought Noa’s story cleared everything up. Jesse’s obviously right.”

Sarina huffed and rolled her eyes. But Jesse was grateful. At least everyone else seemed to agree with him.

“Let’s not talk about it anymore,” Celeste said.

“Right,” Peter agreed. “I talked to Noa. Remember how I told you that his dad was here the other day?”

“Yeah,” Danny said. “Did something happen?”

“His dad wants Noa to live with him. And Noa agrees.”

They fell silent.

It was a shock. Peter had told them the truth about Noa’s dad. It took a bit for Jesse to wrap his head around the idea. To think the story of Noa’s father was one more mangled rumour…

He’d believed it for so long, just like everyone else.

But Noa wanted to live with his father now? He was really okay with that? Wouldn’t that mean leaving Misty Meadows behind? And they hadn’t seen each other since Noa was a kid. Would that really be okay?

“So, Noa will be leaving?” Danny said. “Forever?”

“He wants to come back,” Peter said. “He’s worried about Rion.”

And that made perfect sense. Because Rion was ready to jump off the hospital roof.

“How will that work then?” Celeste asked.

“I don’t know,” Peter said. “He still needs to talk to my parents. He wants to go over everything with them and his dad. He’s trying to figure it out, and he’s… There’s a lot going on.”

“I’ll say,” Sarina said. “Noa needs to come back. He can’t just leave.”

“He can, actually,” Peter said. “Technically, he should be with his dad.”

“And we’re sure Noa’s dad isn’t a psycho?” Sarina said.

“As sure as we can be.”

“I guess there’s not much we can do about it,” Danny said. “I mean, I hope Noa comes back. And I hope it works out with his dad.”

They slipped into another long silence. It was hard to think of anything to say.

Now that they had the full truth, there wasn’t anything they could do with it. Especially if Noa left. The only other thing was…

“What about Rion?” Jesse said.

Sarina looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

“He wants to kill himself,” Jesse said. “He’s not going to magically get over that.”

“He’s seeing Dr. Maes,” Celeste said.

“I’m sure he’ll come around,” Danny said.

Jesse shook his head. “You weren’t there on the roof. He was going to jump. He asked for my help getting up on the ledge. No one… No one who goes through something like that is going to get better. Not for a long time, anyway. It’s good that he’s seeing Dr. Maes, but…”

Thinking about Rion on the roof made him as uncomfortable as thinking about how Amber died. Maybe it was because, on some level, some small part of him had considered turning around and leaving Rion on that ledge. He knew it was right to stop Rion, but… It stuck with him. He wasn’t going to ever forget, and he was sure that Rion wouldn’t either.

“We have to support him,” Peter said. “I thought that was obvious.”

“Well, I mean, yeah,” Danny said.

“Good luck,” Sarina said with a snort. “He’ll probably just shrug us off.”

“Knowing that Noa’s hurt himself in the past, would you let him shrug you off if you were worried about him?” Peter asked.

Sarina opened her mouth but then visibly deflated before she answered, “No. I wouldn’t. I’m not saying that we should ditch Rion.”

“It sounded like that was what you were saying,” Danny told her.

“I’m saying it’s going to be hard,” Sarina huffed. “You guys are just seeing him now. I see him every day at school. The guy is cold, stiff, and standoffish. He’s a total dick.”

“I think it’s because he’s hurt,” Celeste said. “It doesn’t help that he’s getting bullied.”

“That’s gonna stop,” Sarina said.

“Yeah?” Danny said. “So, you’re going to start treating him better?”

“Of course!” she said. “Listen, I get it, okay? I’ve been a total, complete bitch – a real asshole. I fucked up, and I fucked up a lot. I don’t want to be that person anymore.”

“Good,” Celeste said, looking relieved.

“About time,” added Danny.

“Yeah,” Sarina said. “And… Danny, I want to be friends again. I know that it’s probably too early to… I mean… I still have shit to sort out. I’d like it if we could, you know…”

“We’ll see,” Danny said. “I mean, I’d like to be friends again too. But I have to know that you’re not going around and beating people up anymore. I know you said you want to change, but…”

“Yeah. I know. Like I said, I fucked up. I get it.”

“Monique invited me to coffee. She’s still friends with you, so I’ll talk to her. Maybe we can all work things out.”

Sarina blinked and scrutinized Danny for a minute. He noticed the look and frowned.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Danny asked.

“If Monique asks you out for coffee, never invite me along,” Sarina said. “I don’t want her pissed at me.”

“What? I wasn’t inviting you,” Danny said. “I mean, I’m fine to go out with you and her–”

“No! Nope!” Sarina said, holding up her hands. “I’m not going near that!”

“What’s wrong with you?” Danny said, lost.

“Danny, I think Monique invited you on a date,” Celeste said.

Danny looked at Celeste, then back at Sarina. His whole face went red.

“What…?” he said.

Jesse couldn’t help but smile, even though it left him with a dull ache in his chest. Seeing other relationships happen around him always stung, even though he knew it was just him and his feelings about Amber.

“Monique has been crushing on you since you were in kindergarten,” Jesse said.

Danny turned to him, jaw dropping. “What? No way…”

“Yeah,” Sarina said. “Good luck with that, Danny.”

“Monique… Monique wants to go out with me,” he said.

“I thought you always got along,” Peter said.

“Yeah, but I had no idea…” Danny said. “A date… Man. Wow. Okay. Uh… Right.”

“You’ll be fine,” Sarina said. “Don’t sweat it.”

“I wasn’t going to until you told me that my coffee plans were an actual date,” Danny said. “Geez… I’m going to have to ask my mom for advice.”

“You’ll be fine,” Jesse said. “Just be yourself.”

“That’s right,” Celeste said. “You’ll be okay. It can’t go wrong.”

“Stop it. You guys are freaking me out,” Danny said. “Urgh. I can’t think about that right now. I’m going to get all nervous.”

“I think I should get going,” Jesse said, getting to his feet. “I need some time to think, and there’s other things I need to do today.”

“Right,” Peter said. “From here on, I think we can agree to try and support Rion and Noa and make sure that they… I mean… Nothing’s really okay, and it’s going to be hard, but…”

“Yeah,” Danny said. “Yeah, we’ll all do what we can. Especially if Noa leaves and Rion’s stuck here for a bit. We’ll have to check in on him and stuff.”

“And we have to be ready to welcome Noa back,” Sarina said. “There’s no way he won’t come back. He’s got to.”

“We’ll see how things pan out and do our best,” Jesse said. He gave them a wave. “I’ll see you around.”

When Jesse left, he didn’t feel much better than before. In fact, he felt like things were still up in the air. He wasn’t happy with the truth, and he still hadn’t forgiven Noa or Rion.

But maybe, one day, he could.