The morning sunlight spilled through the curtains, casting soft stripes across the floor. Esme sat upright on the couch, awake long before her friends began to stir. May was curled up on the rug under a blanket. Liam snored softly beside an empty pizza box. Everything was quiet now the chaos had passed. But in Esme’s chest, something still trembled.
Her phone was still in her hand.
She hadn’t slept much. That voice note the sound of Dave cracking, Gerald’s smug cruelty it had looped in her head all night. She’d played it once more around 3 a.m., just to be sure she hadn’t imagined it. But she hadn’t. It was real.
The messages from Gerald still sat in her inbox. Some sweet. Some seductive. Some twisted enough to make her question her own sanity. Lies, all of them. Pretty words meant to c
