Chapter 4: Returned to Sender

Zara came home from the Hamptons at noon with a tan line and three new bags.

I was at my desk with the red box sitting next to my laptop. I had decided not to hide it.

She saw it at once.

"Oh," she said. "Brett sent you something?"

"He sent it," I said. "I didn't ask for it."

"That's so thoughtful of him." She set her bags down and touched the ribbon with one finger.

"He wants everyone to be friends. It's one of the things I love about him."

Behind her, one of the roommates had stopped scrolling.

"Wait," the roommate said. "Cartier? To her?"

"It's a peace offering," Zara said, still smiling. "Right, Junie?"

I looked at her.

Her smile was perfect and her eyes were not on my face. They were on the card, still in my hand.

I slid it into my back pocket.

"He doesn't owe me peace," I said.

"She's taking it," the other roommate said to the room.

"She catfishes the guy for six months, then takes a Cartier box from her roommate's boyfriend. Unreal."

"I'm not taking it," I said.

"Sure you aren't."

"Watch."

I picked up the box and my keys.

Zara's hand touched my sleeve. "Junie, wait. Let me talk to him first. He gets upset easily."

"I'm sure he does," I said, and left.

The lacrosse team practiced on the lower field at three.

I had never been on that side of campus.

I crossed the grass in my hoodie and baggy jeans, with the box in both hands.

Thirty guys in pads turned to look.

I found Brett at the center of them, holding a stick.

He was taller than he looked in the pictures. He had a sunburn on his nose and the kind of hair that stays perfect after a helmet.

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