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“Here’s to staying sober,” Lindsey says, toasting me with her plastic cup.
She runs her tongue around the gelatinous mixture and sucks it out, and I follow suit.
“Damn, girls, I’d pay to see you do that again,” Greg says, slinging an arm around each of us. “How about we take this to the hot tub?”
He pulls us away, and Elaine follows with a furious expression on her face. I’m a little smug that she was ignored, since I’m sure before I was around, she would have been on Greg’s other arm.
He leads us to yet another part of the house, pulling us into a hallway that smells strongly of chlorine. Voices and laughter echo around the room ahead, and when we step inside, it’s full of steam and people in various state of undress.
“I don’t have a bathing suit,” I say, ducking out from under his arm.
“Don’t need one,” he says, pointing to a crude handmade sign.
“NO BATHING SUITS ALLOWED!!!” is written on poster board with a bleeding marker. Realizing there’s a lot more nudity in this pool than at the last party, I look away. Not counting my baby sister, I’ve literally never seen a naked person in my life. It seems way too obscene to see a bunch of naked strangers at once.
“Yeah, Sky, you don’t need a bathing suit,” Elaine purrs beside me. “Come on.”
She draws the straps of her short green dress over her shoulders and shoots me a look that’s half challenge, half triumph. She knows she’s already won. I may be the new girl and therefore worthy of attention for a moment, but I can’t compete with her. We don’t even play in the same league, and she’s making sure I know it.
I look to Lindsey for help, but she’s talking to Katy, who’s wrapped in a towel and holding a red plastic cup of beer.
“What are you afraid of?” Elaine asks me in a sugary voice. “Scared some boy won’t be able to resist you? Or are you just afraid we’ll all laugh at you?”
I look around, not sure what to do. Elaine slips out of her dress, letting it fall in a silky puddle around her ankles. I fix my gaze on the ceiling.
“That would be a funny sight.” Elaine laughs maliciously and slides into the pool, graceful and white as a swan. Her laughter echoes around the room, and suddenly I’m a little woozy. The hot steam and the noise and the shots all seem to push in on me at once. I turn and nearly bolt for the door, Elaine’s words echoing in my ears as I flee back into the house.
Why would it be funny to see me naked? Because I’m so bony and unsexy? Am I really ugly, or was she just trying to get under my skin?
Wanting to escape the laughter in the pool room, I make my way through the mash of bodies towards the door. All the furniture has been pushed against the walls in the living room, and people are dancing.
I escape out the front door. Two people lean over the railing, puking into the now empty flowerbeds. Seeing them makes me a little queasy, so I pivot and dive back into the chaos. There’s no escape.
two
Now Playing:
“Fall Down”—Toad the Wet Sprocket
Back inside the belly of the writhing party beast, Daria throws her arms around me and professes that I’m her best friend in the whole world. After a few of these parties, I’ve gotten used to drunk Daria, and I know not to take her seriously. She drags me into the living room and grabs a couple of test tubes filled with colorful shots from someone before shoving one into her cleavage.
“Take a shot,” she says, shoving her chest at me. Some guys start cheering me on, but I shake my head. I’m not that comfortable with drunk Daria.
“You’re no fun,” she says with a pout. She takes it out and hands it to me, putting the other one between her teeth and throwing her head back. I pause, then follow suit, letting the blue alcohol and sticky sweetness slide down my throat with a burning sensation. Getting drunk can’t possibly make the party worse than it is now.
Daria whoops and tosses the plastic test tubes onto the nearest surface, a coffee table that’s been pushed against the wall and is overflowing with cups and other party trash.
“Now come dance with me!” Daria yells as she pulls me into the mass of grinding bodies. I dance a little, too drunk to care if I know how. I recognize a few faces from school around me, as well as one of Lindsey’s cousins and the Willow Heights kids who show up at all the parties. There are also some older people, those who’ve graduated and still live around here or go to college here. I wonder what Meghan would say if she ran into me at a party, drunk and dancing with strangers.
She’d definitely approve.
After a few songs I’m burning up, and I try to force my way out of the crowd towards the French doors that lead to the back patio. Some guy starts grinding his butt into me, but I sidestep and try to push through more people. I’m almost there when the guy grabs me and starts grinding on me again, from the back this time.
“Let me go,” I say, trying to squirm free of his sweaty arms.
“Come on, baby, dance with me,” he says, pulling me back to him.
I struggle with him a minute, but his arms are like an octopus. Every time I get one off me, the other one snakes around my waist. Finally I turn around so I’m facing him, and he gives me a leering smile that makes my skin crawl. His face is covered in sweat, and the front of his shirt has something spilled down it. I recognize him vaguely from school. I think his name is Michael or Matthew.
