“Hazel, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing!” I insisted.
Concern was written all over Erin’s face, and everyone else around us was oblivious. I tried hard to focus on the thump, thump, thump of the music, on the ridiculous lyrics. I knew this song word for word—it was my favorite old Escape the Fate song, if I had to pick one, but f**k, I could hardly hear it over the whispers. They just wouldn’t stop. The song was about s*x, and my racing mind latched onto a memory of Van, at a place similar to this, with one hand pressed to my lower back, the other one grasping my jaw to tip my head up as he leaned in close and whispered things into my ear that he shouldn’t have. I could still feel the firmness of his chest beneath my fingertips, and I could still hear his devilish chuckle at my response.
The wh
