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and grinning like an idiot. I managed to sneak a glance at his phone before he locked it and shoved it into his pocket.

“Who’s Sophia?” I teased.

“Nobody,” he said quickly. “Tell me about what happened with Kai.”

“He was upset that I didn’t want to celebrate my birthday. It just feels wrong without Violet. He said I was punishing myself for her being gone. Isn’t that ridiculous?” I asked, stalling about telling him that Kai had called me Violet.

“No. I mean, you know he’s not my favorite guy. But I think he may have a point here,” Chase said, completely serious.

Traitor. Chase was supposed to be on my side. I just stared at him in disbelief until he explained himself.

“Breeze, it just seems like you don’t want to let yourself be happy since Violet isn’t here to share it with you,” he sighed. “Every time you find happiness in something that you used to do with Violet or reminds you of her, you immediately stop. Like you’re not allowed to have fun doing things that she used to like too.”

Anger bubbled up inside me, and I was about to tell Chase how wrong he was, but he kept talking before I got the chance to say anything.

“You won’t drink strawberry milkshakes anymore because they were Violet’s favorite too. You lose interest in movies the three of us used to watch together, and you avoid surfing at The Bay since that was Violet’s favorite place to sunbathe.”

My thoughts flashed to this morning, about how I finally felt happy, and how I ruined it. The anger deflated just as quickly as it came on. “When did you get so smart?” I asked him.

“I’ve always been this smart,” he said, flashing a dazzling smile. “You’ve just never shut up long enough to listen.”

I faked being hurt by his comment and gave him a push. “Let’s watch scary movies and eat a ton of junk food.”

“Only if you promise to hold me in the middle of the night if I get nightmares,” he teased.

I loved this. Just being here with Chase. Completely comfortable. Completely safe.

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow is my birthday. I made a decision about what to do. Kai will hate me. But he and I were never meant for more than this. I see the way he watches my best friend. If I were a better person, I would have released him before it got to this point. Love is such a fickle thing, huh? We could have been so good together. Tuesday, I’ll wake up a mother and fall asleep just Violet. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself.

XOXO,

Violet

I woke up the next morning in Chase’s spare bedroom. I had started referring to it as my bedroom. I had clothes in the dresser drawers, my shampoo and conditioner in the attached bathroom, and I had brought Mr. Monk-Monk over. Chase hadn’t even teased me when I snuck in my well loved stuffed monkey.

I heard noises downstairs, which was impressive since the house was so massive. I was convinced another entire family could live here and nobody would even know for weeks. I rolled out of bed and pulled on a sweatshirt over my pajamas. I went to the bathroom and quickly brushed my teeth with the green toothbrush I commandeered from the Joneses’ extra stash of toiletries. My heart panged for the pink one in Kai’s bathroom.

Hurrying down the stairs to see what was going on, I was greeted by Kai and Chase standing at the bottom of the staircase. Chase was holding a birthday cake with lit candles, and Kai was holding a small box wrapped in bright paper. They started to sing to me as soon as I began descending the stairs.

I was so surprised that Kai was there. This is the last place I would have expected to see him. I didn’t even bother trying to smooth out my hair; both Kai and Chase had seen me looking far worse. When I made it to the bottom of the stairs, I couldn’t even speak. I just looked back and forth between them.

Kai spoke first. “I’m sorry for yesterday, Breeze. I was out of line. We will absolutely talk about it later, but for today, can we just forget about it and enjoy your birthday?” Kai asked.

I thought about it for a moment and nodded. Forgetting about yesterday, even if only for today, actually sounded really nice. There was still a lot of hurt we needed to address. I wasn’t over our