Berry stuck her shovel in the dirt near the edge of the fire, then tossed a clump over the flames, which did seem to snuff them out. I did the same.

“Hey!” Tanner screamed, from his puke spot. “What the fuck are you doing to my FUCKING LAWN, you fucking fat COW?” With a strange grace, he wobbled toward us. “You think this is your fucking property?”

“HEY!” I held up my shovel, fully prepared to swing it like a baseball bat. “We’re PUTTING OUT the fire. Even though YOU are an ASSHOLE. And you’re too much of a pathetic sap to deal with your own SHIT.”

“FUCK YOU, ANNE!” Tanner shoved his face into mine.

“NO,” I boomed back, “FUCK YOU!”

“TANNER!” someone in the distance yelled. “Someone broke the back door!”

Tanner stumbled backward, disappearing into the crowd. “Fuck you, dykes.”

In a haze of smoke, we shoveled clump after clump of dirt on the flames until all that was left was the smell of burnt and beer. The shouts of kids freaking out were suddenly drowned out by the sound of a siren.

Berry tossed her shovel on the ground. “They’re here,” she said, “let’s go.”

I handed my shovel to the kid behind me, who turned out to be Sarah. She stared at me, wide-eyed.

“Take it,” I said.

Sarah blinked. Her face looked puffy. She took the shovel.

“At some point,” I snapped, “you’re going to look back at this and realize you were the asshole tonight. Whatever other bullshit you want to tell yourself.”

“BYE!” Berry added, then burst into a jog.

I ran after her, sliding into her car while she revved the engine. We exited just as the firefighters hopped out of their truck. Little stones spat out from under our tires as we skidded past them and swerved through the open gate to the road.

“Fucking Tanner Spencer, fucking Sarah Pye,” Berry muttered, her grip so tight on the wheel her knuckles were little white mountains. “Fucking Gilly Henderson.”

“What did she think was going to happen?” I grumbled. “Like, did she really think Sarah was going to listen to me?”

Berry gripped the wheel.

“When you guys stopped being friends, did she say why? Like did you have a fight?”

“No. But Sarah Pye didn’t like me, so it didn’t take, like, a genius to figure it out. I mean, they made sure I knew without them saying anything.”

Two lights appeared in the road ahead of us, which became a large silver truck that was going faster than we were, and slid past us so fast it was gone in a blink.

“Who’s that?” I wondered aloud. Maybe it was Gilly.

“Mr. and Mrs. Spencer,” Berry said. “Back from poker.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”