Chapter 6

The next day I dragged Madeline shopping.

I bought her clothes, bags, necklaces. She was beaming. Talking non-stop.

Until I tried to buy her a watch.

Madeline grabbed my arm. "What do you MEAN eighty thousand for a watch? Please. Please don't."

She pressed her palms together, genuinely horrified. "If you do this, I'm going to start thinking you're after my kidneys."

I put the watch down.

The moment felt right.

I picked my words carefully. "Maddy. I'm going abroad."

The yelling and accusations I'd been bracing for didn't come.

Madeline actually looked happy. She grabbed my hand and shook it. "Congrats! That's amazing!"

"Is it a postgrad program? Somewhere good? The Royal Academy of Music?"

It was my turn to stumble.

I felt caught out. "Still in the application stage. And it's not music. I'm switching to finance."

Madeline went quiet. For a while.

Then she pulled me into a hug. "It's okay."

"Sophia. Do what makes you happy."

"You're going to have a brilliant life."

That night, just before bed, Madeline flopped onto my mattress.

She shoved her phone in my face, teeth clenched. "What is this demonic shit? Sebastian, already on the next one?"

I squinted at the screen.

Chloe's Instagram. Location tagged: Norway.

"Always wanted to see the Northern Lights. Thought I never would. Then I met him."

The photo: the two of them pressed together under a dark sky.

Something lurched in me.

Sebastian had an old injury in his leg. A bad one. Cold weather made it flare up.

So when he used to ask where I wanted to go, I'd laugh and say, "Somewhere warm. I don't handle the cold."

He'd looked at me, a little confused. "But your whole saved folder is snowy mountains."

I'd hugged him, played it off. "Come on. I just save anything."

He'd gone quiet. Watched me for a long second. Like he saw right through it.

Then he'd said, soft, "Okay."

I pulled my gaze off the screen. Kept my voice casual. "Good for them. Love conquers all."

Then I yanked the covers up over my head.

The rest of the week, I was slammed. Visa paperwork, recommendation letters, financial statements.

Madeline, meanwhile, was raging on my behalf. Screenshots of Chloe's posts kept coming. "Now they're in front of Big Ben! Taking couple photos! They're so ugly!"

I'd skim them, then go back to whatever I was doing.

It was three in the morning when I finally got back to the dorm.

My phone buzzed.

Sebastian. A photo of a snow-covered mountain.

"Next time I'll bring you. It's beautiful. Also, Sophia. I love you."

I did the math. It was around eleven there.

I locked my phone.

Tomorrow was another long day. I needed sleep.

I saw Sebastian again at the vocal competition.

I was in the audience. Sebastian stood near the stage, directing someone to check the stage lights, then the sound system. Making sure nothing could go wrong.

Chloe was in a white gown. She looked like a pearl in a spotlight. Or a startled rabbit.

She turned toward him, flushed, said something.

Sebastian paused. Then crouched, arranging the hem of her dress.

The girls in front of me sighed.

"That's actually the ideal boyfriend. Can I get one."

"Wait, no, isn't Sebastian Blackwood with someone else? Childhood sweethearts, the old-money match, I live for it."

"Ahhhhh."

One of them knocked over a Coke in their excitement. It splashed onto my lap.

The short-haired girl panicked. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry—"

"Wait. Aren't you Sophia Harrington?"

"Then who's that on stage—"

Her friend slapped a hand over her mouth and laughed nervously. "She drank too much Coke. Sugar rush."

I didn't have the energy to be embarrassed. I got up and went to the bathroom.

There wasn't really anything to clean off, honestly. The dark dress hid the stain. Mostly I just needed a minute.

When I came back, someone was in the seat next to mine.

Sebastian, eyes half-closed, finger tapping a slow rhythm on his knee.

He felt me standing there. Opened his eyes.

"Sophia. You haven't been answering my messages."