“By the time you got here, everybody would be gone. You should probably just go to Cory’s.”
I heard a car pull into the driveway. People were already here. So it wasn’t like I was lying to her.
I was about to tell Taylor I had to go when she said in a little voice, “Do you, like, not want me to come?”
“I didn’t say that,” I said.
“You basically did.”
“Taylor,” I began. But I didn’t know what to say next. Because she was right. I didn’t want her to come. If she came, it would be all about her, the way it always was. This was my last night in Cousins, in this house. I was never going to be inside this house again, ever. I wanted tonight to be about me and Conrad and Jeremiah.
Taylor waited for me to say something, to deny it at least, and when I didn’t, she spat out, “I can’t even beli
