“And neither will you when I punch you in both your eyes.”

He chuckled as he sat down beside me and opened a brown glass bottle with the picture of a peach on it. “So violent today, Els. What happened to the little innocent grunge singer I used to hang out with?”

“She was abandoned by her best friend when he started dating a blonde bimbo.” I grabbed the bottle from him and took a swig. It burned and only faintly tasted of peaches. I coughed as I pushed the bottle back to him. He took it and was smiling at me when I could open my eyes to look. “What?” I barked.

“I’ve missed you. That’s all.”

The way his eyes stared at me, like he was soaking me up, seeing me for the first time, made me uncomfortable. I nudged him and looked away, “You’re not drunk enough to get mushy with me.” My heart was beating wildly in my chest. I wanted nothing more than for him to get mushy with me. I wanted Kent, for myself. Part of me was hating him for making me give my v-card to another dude. It should’ve been him and it should’ve been years ago, even if I was fatter.

I heard the liquid swish inside the bottle as Kent took a swig. “You know, I was wondering if you’d still had it. I thought maybe you’d lost your virginity a while ago.”

I laughed, amused that he would think anyone was interested in fat Elly. He hadn’t been why on Earth would he have expected for someone else to be? “Yeah, no.” I sighed softly after I took the bottle from him and took another drink.

“The way you talked about Tony I thought for sure…”

I took another drink. I had made Tony up the summer between high school and college, hoping to make Kent jealous. It hadn’t worked. “Nope.”

“Huh. Well, it’s done with now. And you feel like you’re at the bottom, right?” I nodded, and he continued, “So there’s nowhere left to go but up.”

And up we were. I kicked my legs and stared at the blackness underneath them. “Why did you bring me up here?”