I blink and freeze, but Dee takes a breath beside me and holds up her cup. “Nice to see your genital itching isn’t slowing you down, buddy.”

“Fuck you, you weird bitch.”

“Touché. There really is no way to come back from that. What will I do?” Dee is laughing with a bunch of other kids standing nearby.

I cannot believe that asshole, they are saying. I sneak a look at Aidan, and his face is a dark cloud. But he recovers, laughing at something a friend says, tipping back his cup, and going to the fridge to get another beer.

*   *   *

We spend the next hour or so in the kitchen, bumping into people, swaying to the music, laughing and looking around, seeing and being seen. Everyone’s on their phone, taking selfies and snaps. People keep asking us about the Insta hack, if it was us, asking me about what Breanne said. Dee is having a great time: singing loudly, twirling around with her drink held high. People get caught up in her energy, they are crowding around, laughing and dancing. The drinks keep coming. Every time I pick up my cup from wherever I leave it, it’s full again. People bumping, moving, grinding, twerking, rubbing, singing, sweating. The music gets louder and louder, and my head is feeling thicker. I see someone puke in the kitchen sink. Some sounds are coming through a cloud, but others are right inside my ear.

I’m being held up by the bodies around me. A ship in a storm.

I see Paige across the house, feel her looking. I lift my arm and wave at her, and she looks confused; she nods and turns away. I am giggling about something, my mind rocking around in my head, my body crashing into other bodies. My eyes blink slowly and someone laughs nearby.

Dee and I find our way outside. The backyard deck, where we are now, with a whole new set of people who went outside to smoke up, make out, and get out, has a wraparound banister looking down on the backyard below. The yard slopes down, and there are more people there, milling about, lying down, laughing and yelling. The bass is throbbing and I feel strange. I know I am drunk, and I hold fast to the rail, and see that Dee is doing the same.

Suddenly I’m aware that Paige is there, talking to us.

“You need to watch your back.”

“What?” I say, because I’m honestly not sure what she’s saying.

Dee giggles in my ear.

“Right, it’s so funny.” Paige rolls her eyes. “You know, people are getting hurt.”

“You started it,” I slur, looking over the banister.

“What? No, I didn’t—”

And then Aidan is there, and he’s shoved himself between us, squeezes up against Paige.