She had a particular look when she had already decided something was funny. Her eyes would brighten before anyone else knew the joke.
“What?” I asked.
“Smile.”
.
I barely had time to frown.
Both of her hands hit my upper back.
Hard.
My feet left the stone edge. Instinct took over before thought could. I threw my left arm outward, and my right side reacted too late. My body twisted in the air, and when I hit the water, a hot tearing pain went through my shoulder so sharply that for a second I forgot I was underwater.
I came up coughing.
People were shouting.
Someone crouched at the edge and reached toward me. “Give me your hand.”
I tried to lift my right arm.
Nothing happened except pain.
“My left,” I gasped. “Take my left.”
A man I barely knew stepped halfway into the pool while another guest grabbed my left forearm. Together they hauled me onto the stone.
I was soaked from head to toe. My dress clung to my legs. My hair was in my face. My right arm hung uselessly while I held it against my body with my left hand.
And Lena was laughing.
Not nervous laughter. Not the reflexive laugh people make when they realize a prank has gone wrong and panic hasn’t caught up yet.
She was laughing at my expression.
“Oh my God, Tessa. Your face.”
I stared at her.
“I can’t lift my arm.”
Her smile flickered for half a second.
Then she looked around at everyone else.
“It was just a joke.”
Nobody answered right away.
That silence was the first crack in something I had thought was permanent.
Mom hurried over with a towel. “Let’s not panic.”
“I’m not panicking,” I said. “I can’t move it.”
Dad said, “Somebody get ice.”
Lena folded her arms. “She landed in water, not concrete.”
I wasn’t furious yet. I was too shocked, too cold, and too busy trying not to move my shoulder. Some part of me was still searching for an explanation that would let everybody go back to normal.
Then I noticed Caleb.
He had stepped away from Lena, toward the doorway leading into the reception hall. Sophia was a few feet from Lena, speaking to her quietly. I couldn’t hear everything over the guests asking whether I needed an ambulance.
Caleb could.
He stopped moving.
His shoulders went still.
Sophia said something else. Lena answered.
Whatever Caleb heard changed his face.
He turned back toward my sister.
“Lena.”
She looked at him, irritated now. “What?”