The smoke burned her throat and then her lungs. She thought her chest was going to explode. She held the smoke for about two seconds, and then it all came flying out when she started to cough.

“All right,” the guy with the lighter said. “That’ll get you there.”

Even Isaac, the coughing guy, started to laugh as he collected himself. “She’ll fit in just fine around here.”

Rebecca reached for her beer, happy to have the cool liquid. She took a large swallow, which soothed and burned at the same time.

The tingling along her scalp increased in intensity, a telegraph wire transmitting under her skin. Dots and dashes and urgent messages.

She took another long drink of the beer. It felt like her lungs were sunburned.

“Want more?” the guy asked.

She shook her head, drank more beer, stepping away from the three guys and out into the yard itself.

She heard the voice then.

“Stop it.”

Rebecca thought it came from behind her, one of the guys laughing and jostling for the next turn at the bong. But it was a woman’s voice. And it came from in front of her.

Rebecca walked that way, still holding the beer, even though she’d drunk it down to where just the brackish stuff sloshed around, like in the bottom of a boat. Ahead of her, she saw an alley where a few cars were parked, the only illumination coming from a lone streetlight.

“I’m not joking. Stop it.”

“Come on.”

As Rebecca approached, she saw a guy and a girl near one of the cars, their bodies partially in the shadows. The woman’s back was pushed up against the car, and the guy faced her, his hands on her hips, his head leaning in close for a kiss.

But the woman turned away.

Madeline. It was Madeline. And a guy with a beard.

Rebecca hesitated for a moment. The party waited behind her. As the tingling increased along her scalp, so did her heart rate. Blood rushed in her ears, like the ocean in a seashell.

But she didn’t like what Madeline was saying to that guy. Didn’t like that she’d already said it twice and his hands were still on her.

“Will you please? You’re married.”

“Easy.”

The guy’s hands slid from Madeline’s hips to up under her shirt, exposing some of the flesh above Madeline’s jeans.

“Hey,” Rebecca said. As soon as she said it, she knew she hadn’t been loud enough. So she tried again. “Hey.”

Both heads turned, and the guy stepped back. He fixed his eyes on Rebecca, and while he didn’t say anything, she could see the contempt in the look, the sense that he couldn’t believe someone had dared speak to him that way. Especially someone like Rebecca.

A woman.