When the limo rounded the corner, Wes started getting fidgety. Henry looked up from his phone and raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

Wes flinched. "What?"

"You seem sort on edge." Of course, Wes was always on edge these days. Two day ago, Henry had asked him for a pencil in math class and had surprised him so much he fell out of his chair.

"No I'm okay," Wes gave Henry the fakest smile he had ever seen. Henry had seen a lot of fake smiles; the girls at his school were the champions of the fake smile, but the cheesy grin that painted his best friend's face may have taken the cake.

"You're literally shaking, Wesley. You certainly don't look 'okay'."

"I'm fine," Wes said firmly, though he continued to twitch.

"You sure?" Henry coaxed. "There's nothing you want to tell me? Nothing at all?"

"Oh look, we're here," Wes said, practically leaping out of the car.

Henry sighed and followed Wes into the building and into the elevator. It made sense that meeting up with his secret girlfriend, his best friend, and his ex-girlfriend all at the same time would raise the pressure a bit, and even Henry could agree that Wes did not need any extra stress in his life. Honestly, Henry couldn't help but feel bad for him; he seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack at all times, and he'd been avoiding everyone. He'd been staying at his own apartment more and more frequently and even when he was at Henry's he hid away in his room and barely spoke to Henry or his parents, and even when he did he wouldn't look at any of them. Henry noted less outings with the Beaumont's (Henry was sure it was just with Sloane, but Wes always made sure to mention he was out with both of the twins; probably to throw people off), but also that Henry rarely saw Wes outside of school. He wouldn't be surprised if Wes was just hiding out in his empty apartment all the time. Frankly, Wes's reaction to having a secret relationship seemed disproportionate to the actual severity of his misdeeds. Sure, Henry was pissed Wes was lying to him, but he was clearly in agony. If Wes didn't get this off his chest soon, Henry was sure he would completely break down.

"Hi!" Sloane greeted them the moment the elevator door opened, like immediately after the door opened. She was standing literally three inches in front of the elevator. Wes yelped and stumbled backwards.

"Oh, didn't mean to surprise you," Sloane apologized. "I just heard the elevator and went to say hi and got a little over excited, I guess. Oh well; come on in."

Henry followed her into the apartment, which was decidedly less loud and dark and crowded than when he'd last seen it, at Sloane's party. Sloane whipped around to face him. "So I got food and stuff. Paige just texted me that she'll be here in a second, and she's bringing Laurel with her, so they'll be here. And Teddy's coming in a little bit."

Henry nodded. "Okay."

Wes sat down tentatively on the edge of the couch, not saying a word, and Henry decided that if Wes wanted to be a wet blanket, it wasn't his problem.

Declan emerged for a hallway, looking confused. "Uh, hey guys… What are you doing here…?"

"I invited them," Sloane said. "Remember?"

"No I don't remember," Declan said, looking unamused. "Because you didn't tell me."

Sloane frowned. "Didn't I? I was sure I mentioned it."

"You did not. You forgot. Again."

Sloane rolled her eyes. "Oh stop moping, Eeyore. I'm sorry I attempted to be social towards our friends, but I haven't seen these two in forever."

Henry sighed. As if she hadn't seen Wes while they were sneaking around together. Who did they think they were fooling?

"Are a lot of people coming?" Declan asked tentatively

Sloane shook her head. "No, only these two plus Paige, Teddy, and Laurel. It's gonna be pretty low key, I swear."

"Better be," Declan grumbled.

The doorbell sounded and Sloane's face lit up. "That must be the rest of everyone. I'll get it."

Declan sunk into the living room couch and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Ugh. People."

Sloane returned with Paige, Laurel, and Teddy. "Guys look who I found."

"Hello," Henry said. "How are you all?"

Laurel beamed. "It's going good."

Paige shrugged. "Meh."

Henry could always count on Paige to be unimpressed by the world. She was a creature of long legs and cynicism. Her mood and opinions changed every day, so one day she could be friends with someone, and the next they were blacklisted forever. Henry's mother always said Paige reminded her of a younger version of herself, only more ginger. She was not one to cross, which Henry respected. Good old Paige.

"So I bought food," Sloane said.

Teddy eyed her suspiciously. "What kind of food?"

Sloane thought a moment. "Um, some chips, soda, a cake-"

"Cake?" Paige interrupted, perking up. "Like what kind of cake."

"I mean, I just picked it up when I was at the grocery store," Sloane said. "I think it's chocolate."

Paige and Teddy locked eyes. "Fuck yes. Grocery store cake and brand name chips."

"Uh, are you two like foodies or something?" Sloane asked in confusion.

"No, they're junk foodies," Henry explained. "They come from a hippie household. We all try to stay away from the Holbrook-Fairfax place, because there's only ever bean curd puffs and homemade kombucha to eat. So basically every time we go out in public and eat, these two pounce on all the Twinkies and Cheetos the can get their hands on."

"You poor, oppressed souls," Sloane said sympathetically. "I'll get out the snacks."

"Yes thank you," Paige and Teddy agreed in unison.

Laurel carefully selected a potato chip and popped it into her mouth. "You know, I can't believe we only met you three months ago, Sloane. It seems like much longer."

Sloane nodded. "Well, we've moved around a lot, so I've got a lot of practice making new friends. My mom followed almost every one of my step fathers back to their home states, so this is the ninth city I've lived in. Like, in seventh grade, Declan and I lived in three houses, in three states, went to three different schools, and had three step fathers."

"That's horrible," Teddy said.

"Eh, we get by," Sloane said with a shrug. "But basically that means we never know how long we'll get to keep our friends. Dec's pretty much given up, but I'm still holding out that one day we'll all settle down somewhere. So I'm sorry if I come on kind of strong; I'm just trying to forge meaningful connections as quickly as possible, you know?"

"You just made me sad," Laurel said. "Let's do something fun."

"Like what?" Paige asked

"I'll go see if we have booze," Sloane suggested as she walked away.

Henry sighed and sat down at the counter. "Any other ideas? I mean, in addition to getting drunk of course. That idea's definitely a keeper."

"Want to see what's on TV?" Teddy asked.

The television flipped on to a nature documentary, and after fifteen minutes, nobody could figure out how to work the remote.

"This sucks," Paige complained. "I'm gonna go find Sloane and tell her to hurry up."

"Aw, but the pandas are cute," Laurel said, staring at the screen.

Henry appreciated Laurel for her constancy. No matter what was happening in the general public, Laurel could almost always be trusted to be her usual bubbly self. Henry found her positive attitude incredibly refreshing, especially after spending much of his time with a mopey, anxious Wes. Bouncy, friendly, and painfully optimistic, she was probably the nicest among all of Henry's friends. Usually he found her to be fairly irritating, but at the moment he was just glad to see someone in a good mood.

"But you don't really want to watch an entire movie about pandas and their eating and sleeping habit, do you?" Teddy pointed out. "Sure it's cute but this is already getting old."

Laurel opened her mouth to protest, but stopped when Paige re-entered the room, wide eyed with shock.

"Did you find Sloane?" Teddy asked. He stared at her. "Are you okay?"

"I don't understand," Paige sputtered in shock. "I don't… her ex-boyfriend… don't think they noticed me… known him forever… bedroom… I never would have…"

She trailed off and Henry started connecting the dots. He hadn't seen Wes for about twenty minutes. It all made sense now. Nobody took that long to go through their liquor cabinet; Sloane wasn't getting alcohol, she'd just used that as an excuse to get out of the room to go fooling around with Wes. And Paige, in her search for Sloane, had happened upon the two lovebirds, without their knowledge, apparently.

Henry stormed past Paige and down the hallway. This was the last straw. It was simply uncultured to invite people over to your house just to abandon them and sneak off with your secret boyfriend. Henry was so fed up with all of this damn deception. He found the room in question, the only one with the door shut, and flung open the door. "I knew it! I-"

Every bit of anger Henry harbored towards his best friend immediately dissolved, replaced quickly by shock and confusion. Looking back, he supposed he may have jumped to a conclusion, but never in a million years would he have predicted this. He'd thought there'd be an 'aha' moment when he finally figured out what was going on, but any feelings of triumph had died the moment Henry had realized what exactly he was seeing. The two faces staring back at him looked equally shocked and horrified, perhaps even more so. Henry suddenly understood why Paige had looked so surprised, why Wes had been so frazzled for the past few months. Because the dark figure so closely entwined with Wes was not Sloane; it had never been Sloane.

It was Declan.

Spotted: Henry Bass looking dazed and confused, and the feeling appears to be mutual. Henry thought Golden Boy and Freak Girl were running around behind his back, but it looks like H miscalculated. It seems that W wants the D in more ways than one. Looks like more than the truth came out tonight.

More details later. XOXO