Chapter 3

My chest tightened as I looked around.

Rowan and Mason were on my cream-colored couch, shoes on, playing Xbox.

At the bar, Xavier spilled wine while opening a bottle. He dropped my discharge papers onto the puddle and pushed them across the floor with his shoe.

Ethan had let them in with his key. He kicked his bag aside, swept my heart medication off the dining table, and put a pizza box in its place. Two of the bottles were prescriptions I'd filled the day before.

They rolled beneath the table. He crouched to pick them up, then stopped when I spoke.

"This is my home. You came in without my permission. I can call the police."

All four turned toward me. For a moment, the only sound was the game on the television.

Xavier set down the bottle. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? We're not allowed over now?"

"No. You're not."

Ethan straightened, leaving the medication where it was. "They came to apologize. Rowan even brought seafood. Do you have to look at her like that?"

Rowan nodded, her lips pushed out. I glanced toward the kitchen, where three bags sat beside the sink.

"Does anyone here know how to prepare it? Or did you come to apologize and expect me to cook for you?"

They knew I was allergic. It had never stopped them from bringing Rowan's favorite food and leaving me to prepare a meal I couldn't eat. If I objected, she looked hurt and they called me ungrateful. I'd put on gloves, cook for everyone, and clean up afterward.

Rowan's mouth tightened. "Fine. We'll order something. You don't have to make a whole thing out of it."

"I said get out of my apartment."

Xavier and Mason glared at me. Ethan snapped, "Chloe. Watch your tone."

I crossed the room and pulled Rowan to her feet. Her phone slipped onto the couch, and the video she'd paused started playing.

Laughter burst from the speaker.

The title read: "Dumbass Friend Pranked Into a Haunted House."

I stopped, staring at the screen. It was me on Halloween, stumbling into walls and falling as Mason chased me. Every fall had a cartoon sound effect. Filters distorted my terrified face.

Rowan glanced at the phone and smiled. "It's just for fun. You need a title like that if you want people to click. Look, it's blowing up."

She ran promotional campaigns for local businesses. She was always talking about growing her account and landing better deals.

The video had eighty-seven thousand likes.

I looked from the number to my face on the screen. I'd thought I was trying to reach my injured boyfriend. They'd been recording something to post.

That was what they'd been laughing at when I came out of my bedroom. They'd watched it again, with me asleep just down the hall.

My hand shook as I picked up her phone. I tossed it onto the cushion beside her.

"Delete it. Now."

She shrieked and threw herself backward, landing in the open pizza box. Cheese smeared across her dress.

I hadn't thrown the phone at her. Everyone in that room had seen where it landed.

Xavier shoved me aside so hard I stumbled, then rushed to help her up.

"Apologize to Rowan. Right now. I'm the only family you've got left, and you can't even listen to me?"

Mason bent toward her, asking softly whether she was hurt. When he turned to me, his voice changed.

"It was a joke. Get over yourself."

Ethan pulled Rowan against his chest. "You've been taking this out on everyone since Halloween. Now you're throwing things at her?"

"I threw it onto the couch. You watched me."

"She's your best friend, Chloe."

"My best friend?"

I laughed, though my eyes were burning. Three men were crowded around a woman with pizza on her dress. My medication was still on the floor.

"She knows what those places do to me. Last year, I ended up in the hospital. This year, you all helped her trick me into going back."

Rowan stayed against Ethan's chest. He made no move to let her go.

"Then she turned it into a video so strangers could laugh at me too. That's a friend?"

My gaze moved from Xavier to Mason, then settled on Ethan. I'd spent years loving these people and trying to keep them happy. Now they were waiting for me to apologize for objecting.

"You don't deserve to be my brother, my boyfriend, or my friends."

"I'm done with all of you."