Chapter 2

Chase caught me before I got to the door and ruffled my hair like I was nine years old.

"You didn't even blow out your candles," he said. "Don't do this in front of everybody."

I moved my head out from under his hand.

"We're done," I said. "Don't contact me."

Somebody's fork hit a plate. I tapped my way out of the room with the cane, the same way I'd come in. They weren't getting anything else out of me tonight.

I called my mom from the parking lot and told her I wanted to come home early.

She pulled up in eight minutes, still in the shirt she does the yard in. She didn't ask why until we were on the highway, and by then she didn't have to. My phone was still set to read everything out loud, the way it was all night at the table.

Message from Chase. what is going on with you. I booked that whole room.

Message from Chase. is this about Kenzie? she's one of the guys. we mess around. you've known that for two years.

Brynn Foster. hazel that was SO extra

Tyler Grant. we drove forty minutes for this lol

Brynn Foster. nobody did anything to you???

My mom's hands tightened on the wheel at every one of them.

"Do you want me to turn that off?" she said.

"No."

I typed back one line. Who's being extra?

Then I left the group and blocked all of them. I left Chase. There was a ring on my finger and two families behind it, and I wanted to end that part to his face.

My dad had the second cake out on the counter when we walked in. They'd bought it that afternoon, for after the party, just the three of us.

I took off my glasses.

"They put a cake out with my name on it," I said. "It said Hawkeye, and they drew two X's under it for eyes. Kenzie told me it said to my forever girl."

My dad set the lighter down.

"Chase kissed her at the table," I said. "He was holding my hand while he did it. Everybody filmed it."

Nobody said anything for a second. My mom pulled out the chair next to me and sat down.

"There's a group chat," I said. "Tyler wants to show me the video when I can see. Brynn says nobody's ever going to want a blind girl, and Chase is a saint for staying." My voice went sideways on the last part. "I don't want to marry him. I don't want to go to Westbrook with him either."

My mom wiped my face with her thumb.

"Then tomorrow we drive over to the Whitakers' and we end it," she said. "You pick the school. Anywhere. We'll pay for it and your dad will drive the truck up there himself."

My dad lit the candles and pushed the cake across the counter at me. He put the knife in my hand and folded my fingers around it.

"This is the first birthday cake you've been able to look at in eight years," he said. "Make a wish before they burn down to nothing."

I made one. I blew them out. The knife was halfway into the frosting when the doorbell rang.

It had started raining hard about an hour before, the kind that comes every August night on the coast. I put my glasses back on before I opened the door.

Chase was soaked through. His hair was flat against his forehead and his shirt was stuck to him, and he was smiling like none of that was happening.

He held out a small box.

"Look. I picked this out myself, for your birthday."

I didn't move.

"Come on. Everyone's still there waiting. Kenzie's been crying in the bathroom since you left, she thinks you hate her." He shook his head. "And no more breakup stuff, okay? I mean it."

I looked at the box in his hand. There was a thin silver chain inside, with a little star hanging off it. The same one that had been sitting on Kenzie's collarbone two hours ago.

I couldn't say that out loud.

He held it there until his arm got tired, and when he finally dropped it his voice changed.

"What is actually wrong with you today? You cried when I put a ring on your finger. You cried, Hazel." He wiped rain off his jaw. "You never used to question me. Not once in eight years."

That part was true. For eight years the sky was whatever color he said it was. I had a whole life mapped out on top of it, the two of us at Westbrook, him describing my dress to me on a wedding day.

"I'm not being dramatic," I said. "The engagement is off. Don't contact me."

He threw the box down on the porch. It bounced off the boards and the chain came out into the rain.

"Hazel, are you seriously going to keep doing this? Because I have put up with—"

My dad stepped in front of me. He didn't raise his voice.

"Watch your mouth, Chase."