The truth comes out... ish

Even lying still in bed, she was shaking. It became apparent to her that no one in the long line of her family had ever done anything like this. They weren't rich people, and they weren't saints, but they weren't... well, that. What she'd been last night. That knowledge was a cold little ball in the pit of her stomach. She had walked and talked her way into this, and now she had to say something to her picture perfect, white picket fence sister. Some version of the truth was needed. Her eyes closed involuntarily. Both hands pressed the phone against her chest, and she dreaded what she was going to say. So, keep it vague, she decided. "Do you remember my friend Mina? The one from the Trivett family." Like anyone could forget Mina. Her family was concerned when she'd said they were hanging out. They didn't know why it would be happening, and Izzy didn't either. Though, she suspected she knew, now. "We were hanging out with these two guys last night. And we did some stuff." And then they did... some stuff. Carnally. She deliberated over how to phrase that part for a full three minutes, and came to something that conveyed only the vaguest outline of it. Certain acts that were unacceptable to religious authorities transpired. In the same room, while other acts were happening as well. No need for Rachel to know she'd sucked the dicks of two men, or who they were, or how Mina had taken tangible proof of it all.

The message slid out into the wide world on radio waves. After that, the room seemed colder. She was more alone than ever. Then she turned on her phone's screen again and tabbed over to the conversation with Mina. The picture sat at the very bottom. Yep. There you are. That's you forever, now. Unless she kept it on the D-est L in human history. She'd never replied, she remembered now. First she tried to think of something fun and cute and casual to say to the picture, but that wasn't going to happen. So instead she pretended it wasn't there. "Thanks for talking to Ivan for me," she wrote back to Mina.

Predictably, Mina's response came much faster than her sister's. "She lives!"

Technically.

"Yeah," she texted back.

"How're you feeling??" What a question. Izzy shut her eyes again. The correct thing to say was that she was fine. Otherwise they would have to unpack what had happened in greater depth. Or, Mina, in all the generosity she'd displayed before last night, would try to come take care of her. That was the worst idea imaginable. She opted for "fine."

"I'm exhausted," wrote Mina.

YOU'RE exhausted?? Izzy blazed. What could've made her so tired? Then came the answer from Rachel, and she was brought back down to Earth.

"Oh my God. Are you okay? What did you take? Are you okay?" So typical an answer from the mother of a newborn.