I started to turn away, my legs shaking so badly I could hardly even stand. That was when I spotted my mother. She was standing in the doorway with Gray, having just come back from the bathroom or from outside. Her hand was over her mouth, and she looked like she was about to pass out, burst into tears, or worse. I had to get to her.

“All right. That’s enough.”

I froze. The room—the tables, the balloons, the waiters—everything in front of me tilted. That was Jake’s voice. And it was coming through the speakers. Slowly, I turned around to look at the screen. The camera whirled, and there he was, clear as day. Jake reached out, took the camera, and the screen went black.

My whole body started to shake. He had been there. Jake was there. He’d seen my father. He’d seen him doing a minimum-wage job in a dirty apron getting humiliated by a bunch of kids. Everyone in the video had been wearing winter coats, which meant it was taken over the winter. Jake was there. He’d known for weeks and weeks where my father was. And he hadn’t told me.

The lights came up. Every single set of eyes in the room was trained on me. I looked down at Jake. He looked like he wanted to die.

“You knew?” I said, my voice trembling. “You knew?”

“Ally, I—”

“Don’t attack him,” Shannen said, crossing the dance floor. “He was just along for the ride.”

“Shannen!” her mother hissed.

Shannen ignored her and kept coming. She had this evil look on her face. So self-satisfied. So happy.

“How could you do this?” Chloe asked, standing up from the table.

“She deserves it, Chloe, trust me,” Shannen said.

I took a step back, but my legs were so weak I almost went down. I caught myself on the back of someone’s chair. Jake got up and reached for me, but I batted his arm away. My vision was blurred by tears. I didn’t know what to do, who to yell at, which way to go. All I knew was, I’d just seen my dad for the first time in two years. He was alive. He was working somewhere nearby. Yet he’d never bothered to contact us.

And everyone I knew had this information months ago.

“No. No. There was no reason for you to do this,” Chloe said, shaking her head. She turned to me. “Ally, I’m so sorry. We—”

“She hooked up with Hammond,” Shannen said.

I closed my eyes. Gasps everywhere. I couldn’t take much more of this. My heart and brain were still trying to process seeing my dad—being betrayed by Jake—and now this? Why? Why was she doing this to me?

“What?” Chloe said.

“The night she moved away,” Shannen said.

Hammond looked queasy. “How did you—”

“I walked in on you guys. I saw everything,” Shannen said. Then she turned to Chloe again. “She’s been lying to you all this time. They both have.”

Chloe’s shoulders curled. “Hammond? You didn’t.”

“It was nothing, Chlo,” he said, getting up. “It was a million years ago. We just—”

“Stop.” Tears sprang to Chloe’s eyes. She turned and shakily started for the door. I automatically went after her.

“Chloe. Wait. Let me—”

She whirled around.

“Don’t,” she said quietly through her teeth. “I can’t believe you’d do this to me.” She looked away for a moment, her chin trembling. “And all this time I’ve been defending you. . . .”

“Chloe, please.”

She took a deep breath and looked around, taking in the rapt audience. Chloe hated scenes, and here she was, smack in the middle of a huge one.

“I have to go,” she said, drawing herself up straight. “Do not follow me.”

And she was gone. Watching her retreat, my fingers curled into fists. As I turned to face the dance floor, I knew that everyone at all twenty tables was now focused, again, on me. What were they thinking? Did they feel sorry for me because of the video, or did they think I’d gotten what I deserved? Did they think Shannen was nuts for making a spectacle out of her birthday party, or were they just loving the drama? I looked around my table, where my former friends all sat, every last one of them except Shannen and Jake avoiding my gaze. He looked tortured. She looked devilishly happy.

And something inside me snapped. She was waiting for me to turn on my Payless heels and run, but she was about to be disappointed. I was not weak. I was not the girl who crawled away from scandal in the dead of night. That was not me. Not anymore.

“Ally, honey.” It was my mom, standing just behind me. “I think it’s time to go.”

“No,” I said firmly. “No. Shannen got to say what she wanted to say. Now it’s my turn.”

I looked Shannen in the eye and smiled through my tears.

“Wow. You really showed me, didn’t you?” I said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “But guess what? I’ll get over this stupid prank.” It wasn’t just a prank. It was way more than that. And at the moment, it didn’t feel like I would ever get over it, but she didn’t need to know that. “The person you really just hurt was Chloe.”

There was a flicker of doubt in Shannen’s triumphant eyes, but it passed. “I didn’t do anything. I just told her the truth.”

“The truth. Interesting,” I said. “I’ve got a piece of truth I could share right now, too, right?” I glanced past her at her parents for good measure. “Actually, there are a few interesting facts I could spill right now if I wanted to.”

Shannen’s face drained of color. She was terrified. Well, let her be. After everything she’d done to me this year, she deserved to feel like shit for two-point-five seconds. And then the two-point-five seconds were over.

“But I won’t,” I said, “because even though I’m a Norm now, I’m a better person than you’ll ever be.”

Shannen swallowed and looked away, probably still seeing her life flash before her eyes. I turned to face Jake. He stared back at me, a million emotions in his eyes, but all I could think about was how he’d betrayed me. He’d known all along where my father was. All those times we’d talked about it, all the sob stories I’d told about how my dad hadn’t called, about how I didn’t know where he was, and Jake knew. I’d trusted him, and he’d kept this huge, life-altering secret from me. I felt so stupid all of a sudden I wanted to cry.

“Ally—”

The very sound of his voice brought a sob into my throat. “No,” I croaked. “You don’t get to talk to me.” I took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. “Have a nice summer, Jake.”

I turned around and looked at my mother. Her eyes were sad, confused, but I could tell she was determined to hold it together. I took a deep breath and swallowed back all my emotion.

“Come on, Mom,” I said clearly. “Let’s get out of here.”

jake

The DJ started up the music again. I guess he was trying to distract everyone from what had just happened. But for a long moment, no one moved. Except Shannen. Her mom dragged her out onto the patio, closed the door, and went ballistic. Then Hammond got up and went after Chloe. And soon, people started to file onto the dance floor.

“Are you okay?” Faith asked me, standing up.

I blinked. “What the hell just happened?”

“For whatever it’s worth . . . I didn’t know Shannen was going to do that,” Faith said. She sighed and looked toward the door where Ally had disappeared. “She must hate Ally even more than I knew.”

I swallowed hard. Shannen came in from the patio and stormed toward the lobby. I felt a surge of rage so fierce I had to move.

“I’ll be right back.” I went after Shannen. I caught up with her in the lobby as she was about to shove her way into the bathroom.

“Shannen!”

She stopped and turned around slowly. Her whole body was tense with anger.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” I blurted, barely containing my fury.

Shannen laughed and looked away, shaking her head. She crossed the marble floor until she was standing right in front of me. She didn’t look guilty at all. Or sorry. She looked defiant. “I did what I had to do.”