“Why does she need new friends?”

We stared at each other, both suddenly uneasy. “That’s a good question,” I said. “And I don’t know the answer.”

But then Tyler shrugged. “I guess I can see wanting to be around people who don’t drink. No temptation that way.”

“Do you know something I don’t know?” I asked him.

“It depends on what you know.”

Really? “I know that something happened at that party. But I don’t know what.”

“I don’t know either, man.” He held out his hands. “I do know that maybe Nathan shouldn’t have been the one to give her a ride home that night.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Just that I saw them leave together. That’s it. That’s all it means.”

But it clearly wasn’t. He was trying to tell me something without telling me directly. I turned and punched the bag again. Hard.

“Go take a shower,” he said. “Brush your teeth. Use Jayden’s toothbrush, not mine. Go have fun with Robin.”

I wasn’t sure that I could, but I was damn going to try. I wasn’t going to embarrass her.

That didn’t mean I was comfortable when we walked into that coffee shop, though. I had showered and brushed my teeth with paste on my finger, and I had asked Robin to bring me a clean shirt when she picked me up, so at least there wasn’t still blood on me. But I still felt hugely awkward as I held the door open for her and followed her inside. It smelled like roasted beans and hipster.

“Wow, it’s crowded,” she said, and even she sounded slightly nervous.

Surveying the group, I tried not to judge, but man, the music coming from the corner of the room where they had shifted tables out of the way for a makeshift stage was pretentious and boring. The singer couldn’t stay in key for more than two seconds, and I wasn’t sure why having deep lyrics meant you could get away with having no vocal ability whatsoever. But whatever. Maybe the guy was fucking awesome off stage as a person.

Some guy waved to Robin and she sounded relieved. “Oh, that’s Christian! Let’s go say hi.”

I wasn’t going to be jealous. That was ridiculous. Robin loved me. She slept next to me every night and woke up next to me every morning. It didn’t matter that this guy looked like he would be making six figures in five years.

Yet my fists clenched and unclenched, and I had to take a deep breath in, a deep breath out.

She was wearing a dress with a belt to show off her waist, and it was the first time I’d ever seen her put any sort of effort into her appearance. She had painted her fingernails and sprayed on perfume, which seemed to smack me in the face every time she moved. It didn’t smell like her to me and I fought annoyance.

“Hey, Robin,” the guy sitting down said. “Glad you could make it. This is Stefan, Blakeley, and Harper.”

“This is my boyfriend, Phoenix,” Robin said after greeting everyone.

“Is that your real name?” Harper asked me.

Was this chick serious? Because my name was weirder than any of theirs? “Yes.”

“I like your tattoo,” she said with a flirty smile, pointing to my sleeve. “Do you have any other ones?”

“Yes. My leg, my back, my chest.”

Interest sparked further in her blue eyes. “Can I see them?”

“Harper, down, girl,” Christian said. “Let them sit down. Ignore her, she has a tattoo fetish.”

“Phoenix is a tattoo artist,” Robin said as we sat down. She sounded proud of me, or at least that’s how I chose to interpret it.

“Are you an art major?” Stefan asked. At least I thought it was Stefan. He and Blakeley had been introduced to me too fast, and I was kind of confused which one was which.

They were showing slight interest and being polite, so I couldn’t complain. I just was well aware that we probably had, oh, nothing in common. “No. I’m not in school. I work full-time in a shop. Robin is a graphic design major, but she also paints.”

Robin shrugged, her nose wrinkling up. “That’s just for fun.”

That surprised me, that she would diminish her art to a hobby. She had been painting almost every night while I was at work and I came back to her place to find the hallway to her bedroom propped with drying canvases. She seemed to be on a creative burst, and I thought it was awesome. “She’s really talented,” I told them.

“So is Phoenix,” she said.

“Well, I can see why you two are together,” Harper said with a roll of her eyes. “Mutual admiration.”

Nice. But I tried not to roll my eyes back because wasn’t that why most couples were together? “What are you studying?” I asked her.

“Alcohol and drug counseling.”

“I’m pre-med,” Stefan interjected before I could say anything. “People have no idea how much damage they do to their body when they drink and pop pills.”

“I don’t think they care,” I told him, feeling Robin’s hand snake over to intertwine with mine under the table.

“The liver damage, the destruction of brain cells . . . it makes no sense. Not to mention how asinine they all look stumbling out of clubs on a Friday night, drunken idiots looking to hook up.”

Robin’s grip tightened.

“Well, at least you aren’t judgmental,” I said casually, irritated as hell. What right did they have to discuss total strangers? What fucking business was it of theirs? If I made the personal choice to be totally clean, that didn’t mean I had the right to go around and point fingers at people who had a beer watching a ballgame. I didn’t go through Tyler and Riley’s kitchen and toss out their beer and whiskey. Not every drinker was an addict.

“What, you think it’s okay to get shitfaced?” he asked, looking at me with suspicion.

“I’m just saying, you need to live your life, but not someone else’s.”

“So you think my major is stupid then?” Harper asked. “Because I kind of thought I was going to be saving people’s lives.”

Not with that attitude. I held my tongue for Robin’s sake. “Sure,” I told Harper, not wanting to engage. “It’s important. I wasn’t saying otherwise.”

The music swelled in the background, a grating, high-pitched whine that made me want to stab myself in the ears. I was losing control and ruining the night for Robin. Carefully, I relaxed the muscles in my shoulders and on down through my body.

“I’m sure in your line of work you see lots of interesting types,” Christian said, with a smile that indicated he was trying to change the subject.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Robin asked, and I heard the shrill irritation in her voice.

So maybe I wasn’t the only one having a bad reaction to this group.

“Do you have any tattoos?” I asked Harper.

But she shook her head. “No, I don’t think it’s very professional looking. Trashy, you know? But they’re so yummy on guys.”

Did she have any idea how rude she sounded? Obviously not. Or maybe she knew full well how she sounded, she just didn’t give a shit.

I turned to Robin. “You want me to get you a coffee or anything?” Please, spring me from this hell, was what I was really thinking.

“Sure, I’ll have a latte.”

“Anyone else need anything?” I was already standing up.

They all shook their heads no and I was able to escape. Regroup. Trying to ignore the fact that a latte cost five bucks—seriously?—I figured with me gone maybe the conversation could take a different direction and be more natural.

Except it didn’t really work that way. When I got back with Robin’s coffee, or whatever the hell it was called, Harper was blasting her former roommate, who wasn’t there to defend herself. “I mean, it was like every weekend, a different guy after drinking herself to oblivion. How did she look herself in the mirror, you know?” Harper tossed her hair back. “But the final straw was when she slept with her best friend’s boyfriend. I mean, really? Who does that?”

The blood had drained from Robin’s face, and I knew without a doubt what exactly had gone down between her and Nathan.