Page 92 of Joey

“It’s more than that,” I say.

She walks over to the light switch on the wall and flicks it off.

We stand there in the dark, unmoving.

“Of course it’s more than that,” she says. There’s a ruffling of clothing in the darkness and I just barely see her pulling her dress over her head.

She stands there. In almost no light. In just her bra and panties. “We are what we are,” she says. “And we don’t even know what that is yet. But this is our first night in this house. And I want more. I don’t know what more is, but…”

She sighs.

Wald moves towards her. He takes her face in his hands and kisses her quiet. “Come with me,” he says. “I’ll show you what more is.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - BROOKE

Wald takes my hand and leads me towards the basement stairs. I still have my shoes on, and the wedge heels are high, but Wald steadies me as we descend.

“What are we doing?” I ask as we approach the bottom.

“Taking some time.”

“Time to do what?”

“To be with each other.”

“Because we’re all going to be together?” I ask.

“One can hope.”

“Have you guys always—”

“No,” he says, cutting me off. “We have done things before. But Joey was always the holdout.”

We reach the bottom and it’s dark down here too. I don’t know where the lights are, and obviously Wald doesn’t either. But there are lights out in the back yard that must be on an automatic timer that give us just enough to see by.

He leads me over to a couch and sits, pulling me down with him.

“Am I overdressed or underdressed?” I ask.

He laughs. He has a nice laugh. It’s deep and I get the impression he doesn’t do it a lot. So it’s special too. “Doesn’t matter. I’m just gonna tell you a story.”

“Are we making a memory?”

“No,” he says. “Well,” he amends. “Sure. It will be by the time we’re done.”

“OK.”

“Joey and Huck and I met one night in freshman year when we were all rushing the same frat house. You know what rush week is?”

“Sure. I mean, I’ve never been to college but I have an idea.”

“It’s mostly hazing. You have to do things you don’t want to do. And everyone makes fun of you while you’re doing it. But after it’s over, it’s no big deal. ‘You’re in. We’re the same now.’ That kind of thing. So they point to us three, for the simple fact that we are standing next to each other in this line, and they tell us to kiss. All three of us.”

“Fuck,” I say.

“And before that night—and to be honest, a long time after too—this was not something I was into. But I did it. Because I wanted in. And I knew that as long as I did what they told me to, these guys would be my friends.”

“Shared secrets,” I say.