There was no way I was about to deal with that. Not with Annie’s revelation, not with Shannen and Faith’s reaction. Not with any of it. All that I cared about was getting to Ally. Getting her away from that surf loser. Getting her safe.But how did she know? How had she found out? Had Chloe called her or something? Had she posted it on Facebook? I mean, how the hell could Ally possibly know?All of this went through my mind as I sprinted up the beach toward Chloe’s alone. Shannen had apparently decided not to come after all, which was fine by me. One less person to worry about. When I got there, I heard a crash and someone screamed. I took the stairs two at a time and vaulted through the door, fists clenched.The first thing I saw was Hammond and Ally’s surf loser wrestling on the living room floor. There was a broken bottle of scotch next to them and some girl stood over them, screaming at them to stop. Todd and Trevor were whaling on a skinny dude in the kitchen and Connor and Josh were nowhere to be found.Part of me wanted to rip Hammond off the asshole that had kissed Ally and take a swing at him myself, but then I heard a moan. I looked right and saw Ally lying on the couch. She had puke on her shirt, and there was a puddle of yellow and brown on the rug at her side.I jumped over the puddle and knelt near her feet.“Ally?” I said, taking her hand. “Ally, wake up. We have to get out of here.”Her eyes fluttered open and focused for half a second. “Jake?”Then the front door burst open and two guys in rent-a-cop uniforms came barreling in.“Everybody freeze!”“Omigod! Omigod! Omigod!” The girl started wailing and shaking, like she was having a fit. One of the security dudes reached down and hauled Hammond off the local dude by the back of his neck. Hammond started to swing, but then froze when he saw the guy’s face.“Charlie?”“Hammond? What the hell are you guys doing in here?” The surf loser took the moment to grab the screaming girl and run. His friend in the kitchen wasn’t far behind. Then Charlie, whoever he was, looked over at the couch.“Oh, shit, is that Ally?”“She’s kind of out of it,” I said.He came around the table, grimaced at the puke, and leaned toward her. I did a double take when I finally recognized him. It was Charlie Moore. The dude in all the pictures in Shannen’s room. Her long-lost brother.“Get her out of here,” he said, standing up straight.“What?” his partner said from the other side of the room.Charlie ignored him. He looked me in the eye. He looked exactly like Shannen, but with a beard. “Get her out of here now.” He took out his radio and glared at Hammond and the twins. “All of you, get the hell out of here. You have about two minutes before the actual police show up, and then I’m gonna have a hard time making them believe I didn’t see anything.”I didn’t ask questions. I scooped Ally up in my arms, stepped over the puke puddle, and followed Hammond and the Idiot Twins outside. Surf loser and his friends were nowhere to be seen. Nice that he cared so much about Ally to just bail like that. The twins sprinted ahead of us, back toward the party, cackling like they’d just had the best night ever. We had passed Connor’s house and were almost to Hammond’s when we met up with the girls.“Oh my God! Ally!” Faith said, running over to me. “Is she unconscious?”“I think she’s just asleep,” I said, out of breath. I jostled her in my arms, trying to get a better grip, and she opened her eyes again.“Jake?” she said.“Yeah. I’m here,” I told her.I imagined her saying something dramatic. Something like “you saved me” or “thank you” or even “I love you.”But she looked me right in the eye and said, “You hooked up with Chloe.”And then she turned her head and barfed on Faith’s feet.“Nice,” Annie said with a grin.Faith shrieked louder than any seagull I’d ever heard. She turned to glare at Annie, her fingers curling like claws. I swear I thought she was going to tear the girl’s eyes out.“What?” Annie said happily. “You can’t tell me you didn’t deserve that.”Faith groaned and ran for the water. Shannen bit back a laugh. Hammond shot me a vicious look, then took off up the beach. Clearly, he already knew about me and Chloe, and clearly this was why he’d wanted to pummel me. I expected Shannen to follow him, but she just looked sorry for me.“We have to get her home,” Annie said.Ally groaned and rested her cheek on my chest.“Her mother’s gonna kill her,” Shannen replied.“So, what? Should we take her to a hospital?” Annie asked.Shannen scoffed. “The ones down here suck. She’ll end up getting a kidney replaced or something.”“Fine,” Annie said firmly, taking charge. “You get her back to Gray’s. I’ll go tell her mom to meet us there.”“Okay,” I said finally, starting up the beach again.Faith trudged back from the water, her feet, legs, and sarong wet, her sandals dangling from her fingers. I walked with her and Shannen toward Dr. Nathanson’s house. For a second I wondered where the hell Connor and Josh had gotten off to, but it didn’t exactly matter. All that mattered was getting Ally into bed and making sure she was okay.That, and figuring out how the hell I was going to explain about Chloe.

My mother was sipping tea by my bedside when I woke up the next morning. All the blinds were closed and the entire room looked gray. Even my mother’s skin looked gray.“Mom?” I croaked.My throat was dry and felt like it was covered in sour-tasting fuzz. She put her tea down on the bedside table and leaned toward me as I rolled onto my side. There was a huge bouquet of colorful flowers in a vase next to my bed. Where had those come from? Was I sick enough to merit flowers?“Are you okay? Do you need to throw up again?” my mother asked.My eyes rolled in disgust as the memories of last night came flooding back, and just like that, my head began to pound. It was like someone was playing a timpani drum at the center of my skull, radiating sound waves out to every corner of my head.“I don’t think so,” I said, bringing my hand to my forehead.She lifted a glass of water from the nightstand and I tried to push myself up. I couldn’t get there, though, and settled for leaning back against the pillows at a forty-five-degree angle, where I slowly sipped the water. My mother sighed through her nose and pushed the hair back from my forehead with the palm of her hand. The way she was studying my face made me sad. She’d never looked at me that way before. In that what am I going to do? helpless kind of way.“You’re getting married,” I said finally.She tilted her head. “Oh, Ally.”My lip started to tremble and a tear plopped from my eye onto my hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to cry. It’s just—”“You’ve had a rough few days. A lot’s gone on,” my mother said. “We don’t have to talk about it now.”I took a deep, broken breath and looked toward the window, trying not to cry for real. I choked a little, though, and a few sobs came out. I felt like such a loser, all hungover and gross, with my mother waiting on me. And like I didn’t know which way was up. Who were my friends? Who was my boyfriend? Where was I going to live? Would my dad move away again? And all the while, that timpani drum was pounding away, trying to shatter my skull.“Here. Take these.”My mom held out a couple of Tylenol. I swallowed them gratefully and lay back again.“We don’t have to talk about it now, but we are going to talk about it,” my mother assured me, smoothing my hair again. Her hand felt cold and steady, comforting and perfect. “You and I are going to be doing a lot of talking over the next few days.”I nodded slowly. “I know.”“Good,” she said. “Right now I think you should try to get some more rest.”“Okay,” I replied, my voice thick.I shakily put the glass down on the table, next to the flowers. She picked up her tea and started to go.“Mom?” I said when she got to the door.“Yeah?”“Was . . . was Jake here last night?” I asked.“He’s still here. He’s asleep in the guest room,” she replied.My heart pounded against my rib cage. I had this odd memory of him holding my hand, looking into my eyes, but that was it. What was he doing here? What had happened between us? What had I said?My mother turned to face me. “Hon, you know that I love you, right? No matter what.”My throat closed over. “Yeah.”“Good. And I have to tell you . . . I think that kid does too,” she said.I blinked, confused. “What kid does what?”“Jake. After what he did for you last night, it’s pretty clear to me that that guy is in love.”Then she smiled and quietly closed the door.