She shows up

A little while later, there’s a knock at the door. Jeff opens it with a smile, and a young woman steps inside. “Hey, guys. This is my girlfriend, Ariana.”

I look up, and my stomach drops.

For a moment, I can’t remember her name—or even if I ever knew it. But I recognize her immediately. The party. The upstairs hallway. The bedroom. The memories I’d spent the past week trying to bury suddenly come rushing back.

Then she looks at me.

Her expression changes almost instantly. The smile fades from her face, and her eyes widen slightly. I can tell from the way she freezes that she recognizes me too. Neither of us knows the other’s name, but we don’t need one to understand exactly what we’re looking at.

Jeff gestures toward me. “This is Ethan, by the way.”

Ariana’s eyes flick toward me again. “Nice to meet you,” she says quietly.

“Yeah,” I manage. “You too.”

Jeff doesn’t notice anything unusual. He starts talking about dinner while Ariana sets her things down, but neither of us is really listening. We keep stealing brief glances at each other, both silently realizing that the secret from that night is standing right in front of us.