Page 96 of What They'll Say About Us

"I have a couple of things I want to ask you. First, Liam…"

"What about him?"

"He told me he never cheated on me with Paige. Do you know if that's true?"

She sucked in a breath. "I didn't expect you to ask me that."

"Did Paige ever tell you how close they actually got?"

"Does it matter anymore?"

"Only to me."

"As far as I know, Liam told her to go back to her boyfriend, which is what I told her, too. I knew she was trying to do something with Liam. I didn't know if it was just to get back at you or if she was mad at Nate, but it was wrong. She didn't want to hear that from me or from Liam. That's when she started spending more time with Carrie. Does that help?"

"It does." I felt a small measure of relief. "Something else came up this morning that I wanted to ask you about. You told me you weren't worried that first night when Paige didn't come home, because you thought she was with Nate. But Nate told me you knew he was going to be away that weekend. That you had promised to watch out for Paige, because she was basically falling apart."

"I—I didn't think he was leaving until Saturday," she said quickly. "That's why I didn't realize she wasn't with him until the next day."

She was lying. I could tell in the way she wasn't looking at me anymore, in the way her hands were twisting together in her lap.

"That's not true, is it?" When she didn't answer, I said, "Sloane, look at me. Tell me the truth."

The air seemed to go still with my words. Then Sloane said, "You need to leave, Tessa."

"You know something. What is it, Sloane?"

"Nothing I can say." Her voice was barely above a whisper now.

"You can talk to me."

"You're the last person I can talk to. You shouldn't have opened all these old wounds, Tessa. You don't know how many people will be hurt."

"What happened to Paige, Sloane?"

The question hung between us for a long moment.

"I'm so tired," she said. "I can't do this anymore."

"Do what?" I felt like I was standing on the edge of a precipice. I thought I knew what was coming, but I wasn't sure. "Did Nate hurt Paige? Was he angry with her because she was trying to get with Liam? Or was it Hale, who was afraid she was going to ruin him?" When she didn't answer, I continued, "Was it Liam? He got tired of her throwing herself at him, getting between us?" Even as I threw that suggestion out there, I knew that wasn't a likely conclusion at all, because I knew Liam. "Sloane," I pressed. "It's going to come out. The truth will be known."

"After all this time, I never thought it would," she murmured, her voice taking on a hazy quality as she went back in time. "The last few weeks of her life, Paige changed into someone I didn't recognize. She got hard, brittle, unreachable. She wasn't eating because she wanted to look good on stage. But she was drinking. She was taking drugs to stay awake and then drugs to sleep. She was obsessed with the theater, with Hale, with you, with Liam—everyone but Nate. And he was such a great guy." She paused. "Did you know that I met him first? But once she walked into the room, he couldn't see anyone but her."

My heart leapt into my throat as one truth hit me in the face. "You were in love with Nate." I didn't make it a question, because I didn't have to.

"I tried not to be. I wanted to be supportive, to be a good friend to both of them, but when Paige started using drugs, she got mean and cruel. She said terrible things to both of us. I couldn't stand seeing him sad and bewildered. He didn't understand what was happening. He was in love with her. He thought she was in love with him. I had to make her see what she was doing to him. I had to make her stop. He was my friend, too."

"Oh, my God," I breathed, sensing what was coming. "What did you do, Sloane?"

"Nothing," she said quickly.

"It wasn't nothing," I said with certainty.

"I just wanted to talk to Paige when Nate was out of town. So, I tried to find her that Friday night. I went all over town and campus, looking for her, but she was nowhere. Then, I decided to try one last place. I went to Liam's apartment building around eleven thirty. I didn't think she'd be there, but I knew he'd gotten off work earlier, and people in the bar had told me that you and Liam had an argument. They thought he went home alone. If Paige knew that he was alone, I wondered if she might go to him. When I got to his building, I saw her standing on the sidewalk, looking up at his window like a crazed stalker. I don't think he knew she was watching him through the window. I was about to say something to her, but then she left."

"She didn't knock on his door? She didn't go inside."

"No, she was looking down at her phone, and then she just took off, walking really fast. I had to jog to keep her in sight."