"What was Chloe like?"

Max looked up, surprised. Kate had taken only a few minutes to come and let her down from the roof, and only stopped for a few seconds to enjoy the view, but it had been enough time to thoroughly chill Max, and Kate had insisted on tea in her room. She'd been enjoying the silent companionship while the water boiled, sharing the couch, and hoping that Kate wouldn't ask "are you okay" or anything stupid like that, but she wasn't prepared for that question.

"I..." Max wasn't sure what to say.

"I mean, I never really met her. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. But maybe it will help." Alice squeaked quietly from her cage while Max gathered an answer.

"I knew her since elementary school. Her parents were friends with my parents I guess, I don't even remember why. Eventually we just hung out with each other all the time, and went on adventures. Like, we were pirates one year for Halloween, but after trick or treat we kept the costumes. We must have biked miles all over the north woods and around the lighthouse burying treasure and threatening hikers with plastic swords. She even found a plank once and made me walk it!

"I remember how happy she was... I'd sleep over at her house and we'd talk about fashion and TV shows and watch Powerpuff Girls and Spongebob. She'd tease me about being a Squidward sometimes. Then we'd go downstairs and have breakfast.

"It's kinda weird, but whenever I smell bacon and eggs I think about her. She didn't cook... no, that was all Joyce, but we always ate them together."

"What about the week before she died?"

Right. She'd been acting like that week hadn't happened for so long it was a hard habit to break.

"Nathan picked a fight with me in the parking lot and... she just drives in on her junker pickup, and tells me to hop in. She was so happy to see me even after I left her for five years without so much as a text message. And she was kinda mad about that for a little bit but I guess she had a right to be. She had a lot of things to be angry about since she lost her dad.

"But then I come back into her life and she's amazing. Just a kind of crazy free spirit. Blue hair, bullet necklace, and a skull t-shirt. So punk but awesome. Liked loud music and smoking pot in the mornings.

"She had her own little hideaway in the junkyard. Yeah, the same one where we found-where they found Rachel's... body." The last word took effort to say, but at least it distracted them both from the slip-up.

The tiny kettle finally clicked off, and Kate busied herself making two cups of some tea that smelled faintly of oranges, while Max continued.

"She snuck into the Blackwell pool one night with me. Like, swiped the keys from her stepdad and went for a swim. It was nice, just hanging out with her, and she finally relaxed a bit more. We splashed each other a bit, she teased me about being scared by Jaws, and then we just floated and talked. And she looked really pretty in the pool lights, with her tattoos and the blue hair. And her panties had this awesome design on them, like a sunset with..."

Kate's bright red face suggested that she was not eager to hear more about Chloe's underthings. Max changed the subject.

"We also used David's keys to search the principal's office for clues. Found a bunch of dirt on Nathan, all sorts of crazy stuff Principal Wells had been keeping secret cause of big donations from the Prescotts."

"Wait, were you the one who leaked that to the board?"

"What? No, I... I didn't tell anybody." Shit, should I have? Guess it doesn't matter now.

"Somebody let that slip, that he covered up Nathan's issues. He's probably going to lose his job over it. It's not official yet but I keep overhearing the teachers talk about it. I think it's just a matter of time before he has to resign. He might even get sued."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Some lawyers have been talking to my dad about it. He hasn't told me any details, but it sounds like there'll be all sorts of lawsuits from all the girls who Nathan drugged."

"I bet the lawyers are really excited."

"They won't get much out of Principal Wells, but the Prescotts have lots of money. And Blackwell too. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes bankrupt after all this."

Max was horrified at the thought. "Is it because of me? Because of what I did?"

"How could you have caused it?" Kate's question was mostly rhetorical, but there was just a hint of curiosity in inflection of the last syllable.

There was so much, but nothing stuck. Failing Kate. Standing by as Nathan got beaten to a pulp. Getting Mr. Jefferson shot. Then arrested. Everything she'd done, she had undone. Her silence was answer enough.

Kate continued: "It was all Jefferson, and Wells, and the Prescotts. They have it coming. People with power and money just do what they want, they don't care who it hurts. They hurt me, and they hurt you, and Chloe and all the other girls who were drugged. I hope they pay for it." Max never thought she'd see Kate in a vengeful mood, but there it was. "I know that's not very Christian of me."

Kate handed Max a mug, too hot to sip but smelling perfect.

"What about Victoria?"

Kate considered her words carefully before responding. "She's hurting almost as much as we are. She's not very good at hiding it."

Max felt slightly dumb, since she'd talked to her and not really noticed. "But she was so mean to you, with the video and everything."

"She's done worse than that. For a while I was even a little afraid of her. But...

"Everything the principal, and the Prescotts are doing is trying to protect themselves, trying to get away with it. They got Nathan a good lawyer, and got themselves better ones. Victoria didn't do that. She came to me and apologized last week. She even admitted to a few things I didn't know about. I could have stayed angry about it. I had every right to hate her but God tells me to forgive those who trespass against me."

"I know she was gonna apologize to you. She tried to say it to me first. I didn't want to hear it. Still don't I guess."

"Max, even if you don't believe in forgiveness, letting go of anger is part of the healing process." She sounded like one of the emails from Miss Gibson. Actually she probably was repeating that from therapy.

"It's not that I don't believe in..." Max sighed. "I don't know what the hell I believe in anymore."

"Do you believe in miracles at least?"

"I'm not sure about miracles. I mean, there's something out there, something bigger than us. I know that. I just don't know what. And I know you think God is loving and kind but..." Her voice trembled. "I'm not so sure."

"Oh, Max." Kate leaned toward Max and laid an arm on her shoulder.

She wasn't expecting to be touched, and at first she shied away from it, but Kate's hand did what the tea hadn't, and Max felt warmer.

Max broke the silence with a slight sniffle. "I had a week with my best friend, and everything was amazing, and then it was all just ripped away and none of it mattered, nothing we did or learned made any difference at all." Max took a final sip of her tea and set the mug down on the floor. When her eyes met Kates again she saw something she didn't expect: Instead of sadness or sympathy, a look of realization.

"You figured it out didn't you. That Nathan killed Rachel." She took Max's silence for confirmation. "Is that why you blame yourself for Chloe's death? You and her figured it out, and she went to confront him, with you hiding in the back. Then after he confessed, you didn't need to admit-"

"Please..." Max held her hand up to interrupt Kate. Could that work? It'd explain how messed up I am without making me sound schizophrenic. It was agonizingly close, but with each imagined conversation, little holes appeared. Rachel's undisturbed grave, the surveillance tapes and tracking that would show that Max couldn't have met Chloe before she died (thank you Mr. Madsen). And it could fuck up the trial too, suddenly knowing way too much, with no explanation that matched reality.

"I wish it was that simple. I wish I could just admit that to Miss Gibson and she'd help me get over it like a normal person, but in the end it wouldn't work. She'd find something that didn't make sense, or something that she could disprove and then nobody would believe me and things would just get worse."

"I have faith. I've witnessed real miracles, Max. There is nothing that you could tell me that I wouldn't believe."

This time Max didn't doubt it. The temptation was so strong, to just spill everything, and break down crying on Kate's couch, but... Kate doesn't deserve to be saddled with all this. She just wants to help a friend and she has no idea how fucked up everything is. What if I hurt her?

"Kate, you're a wonderful friend. I trust you more than anyone else. I hope you'll understand one day. Thank you for the tea, it's been lovely."