I glanced sideways at her—she was looking at me again, a smile on her lips. I smiled too as she opened the door to the enclosed porch, where things had become exponentially more risqué. Shanti and I both paused for a moment, arms touching, staring at a particularly handsy threesome dancing slowly about a foot away from us. Kat was one of the three. She and two guys were getting pretty hot and heavy, but not in the usual girl-in-the-middle way. Instead Kat and one guy sandwiched the other dude. Definitely a new combo for me. The skater and boxer dudes I knew didn’t typically hook up with each other… not in front of me, anyway.

I could sense Shanti grow uncomfortable beside me, but I’ll admit, I was mesmerized by the scene.

The guy on the outside—the bread, I guess—was almost as tall as Kat and had a man bun and beard. The middle dude was a bit shorter than both Kat and Man Bun but built like a fucking superhero. Watching Kat and these two men let their hands rove over each other, their legs merging into each other’s, I found myself a little turned on despite being both annoyed and shaken by my recent interactions with Kat, which also felt confusing. I didn’t think I was so much attracted to Kat as just in awe of her. With Shanti, I wasn’t sure what I felt either—just that it was entirely different.

Kat noticed me looking, and when she saw Shanti beside me, her face shifted into a mixture of irritation and exasperation.

In the next moment, she was in front of me, hands hanging off both of my shoulders and her face too close to mine. “Daya! What the fuck! You gotta listen to me already.” Her words toppled out like she didn’t have full control of them. “Shanti’s a lost cause. Trust me… I’ve tried to toughen her up, but she’s not like us.”

I looked over at Shanti, who’d backed away a couple of feet and was staring at the dance floor, her arms crossed.

“Us tough bitches gotta stick together, right? I can tell you get it—you don’t let shit get to you. You don’t let people shit on you either.” She directed these last words toward Shanti, and even in the dim lighting, I could see Shanti’s chin crumple. She didn’t leave, though, which I thought must’ve taken something on her part.

I didn’t really understand what Kat meant or why it was so upsetting to Shanti, but I didn’t really care. Usually I thought crying was weak, but I really hated seeing Shanti so upset right now.