Why oh why did she have to ask him who the pair depicted in ice was? Though Man-Bun didn’t have to be such an asshole and laugh in her face. She can still close her eyes and see the guy’s sneer and hear his stupid voice, “How the fuck do you not know who Rick and Morty are?” She couldn’t believe a stranger would be so awful to her. She should have thrown her glass of champagne in his face, but instead drank the entire thing down and escaped to the roof.

Hoping that eating marshmallows from the hot chocolate bar would counteract the effects of the champagne, Kimmie stuffed her cheeks like a chipmunk with a sweet tooth. This was when she noticed Dustin standing by himself looking up at the night sky. She liked his face immediately, and that he didn’t have a man-bun. He looked so serious and out of place in this anything-goes crowd, which also made her feel better, because he looked exactly how she felt, herself: overwhelmed and wanting to be anywhere else.

Suddenly, Kimmie remembered what she and Dustin had talked about on the roof: space exploration involving a meteor, or was it an asteroid? Dustin had a vast knowledge of astronomy, which he babbled on about for a while, but she liked that he talked too much when he was nervous. She assumed that was why he was babbling, and that she was the cause of his nervousness, which she also enjoyed.

She was the opposite of Dustin. When she felt nervous, she clammed up. She hated this aspect of herself, mainly because when she was quiet, people accused her of being stuck up. She had heard a few of the other skaters talk about her that way. “Kimmie’s such a snob. She thinks she’s better than everyone else because she’s a rich bitch from New York City.” She should have had tougher skin by now, but she really didn’t.

When she went downstairs to look for her sister, Kimmie’d had every intention of finding Dustin again later to continue their conversation. But on her way downstairs she ran into Steven heading up and he turned and followed her back down into the crowded hallway. It was so loud when he asked if she wanted Molly, she honestly thought he said, “Do you want to meet Molly?” Thinking he was referring to a person instead of a drug, she said, “Sure, I’d love to.” Steven pulled out a little bag of crystals and told her to open wide. Kimmie had never tried drugs before, as all competitive athletes were regularly drug tested. But that chapter of her life was over, so nothing was stopping her from experimenting now.