“Welcome to the madhouse!” Kat yelled over the music, and swung her heavy arm over my shoulders. Apparently we’d gone back to relatively friendly Kat, for now. I didn’t fully let my guard down, though. The friendliness could just be the liquor she’d obviously already consumed, judging by her breath in my face. I hadn’t forgotten the last time her face was in mine, or the words she’d uttered. Or how true they were.

“Yeah, I definitely felt that welcome,” I shouted back, rubbing my elbow, where a nice lump was forming.

“Bar’s that way”—she pointed through another door leading out of the living room—“four bucks a drink!”

“Thanks—this is your place, right?” I asked, trying to keep it friendly.

“Yup—the Pink Palace. Hive of the Honeys,” Kat said, eyeing the room with pride. “Lots of opportunities to spend your money! Look around—you’ll find ’em.”

“Got it.”

Before she withdrew her arm from my neck, she leaned in, and her face became serious. Uh-oh. She looked at me. I could tell she was trying to articulate her next words carefully. She managed to slur only a little. “Listen, Daya, this team’s my family. You can be a part of it. But you can’t go all soft.” She rubbed her eyes and refocused them on me. “Soft. Gets. Hurt. Right?” She underscored each word with a finger to my chest. Her face was almost more intense as she said this than it had been when I’d seen her blazing around the track.

Put off-balance by her sudden switch but also feeling every single thing she said deep in my gut, I blundered through my own words. “Right, yeah, uh… okay.” Her voice had betrayed that she knew exactly what she was talking about, which caused a brief ache in my chest for both of us.

I didn’t have a chance to say anything else, though, because Kat thumped me on the shoulder—hard as ever—and continued by me.

Now I needed a drink. I followed Kat’s directions into the next room, which turned out to be the kitchen. Three coolers filled with ice and beer sat against the kitchen island, and an assortment of liquor bottles was spread across the island’s surface. The counter swam in spilled liquid.

I stuffed a few bills into the piggy bank on the counter and poured myself a shot of vodka, hauling that back before pulling out a bottle of beer from a cooler. Just something to chill me out a bit. I hoped that that was the most intense moment I’d experience tonight and tried to shake it loose from my body.