Buoyed by booze, I’d sidled up to her and her friend and joined the conversation. I had my own misgivings about this specific girl—I’d recently been dumped and she was the one my ex had moved on to. I’d had a short-lived, unspoken fantasy of going into his room when they were hooking up and castrating him, taking the industrial-sized guillotine of a paper cutter in the art department and slashing him with it. So when Beth began insulting his new squeeze, I was more than happy to listen.

“Look at her,” Beth had sneered. “She looks like a horse. I bet her teeth are veneers. Who gets side bangs anymore? Like, hello, we’re not in 2009. And that outfit. Can someone tell her we all stopped wearing bandage skirts in the fall? This is college, sweetie, not the party in the basement of your Jersey McMansion. Ten bucks her guido father gets put away for money laundering before we graduate. Absolute trash.” Beth’s friend and I had snickered along as we watched the girl trip in her stiletto heels.

“What’s your beef with her?” I’d asked, taking a sip of my warm beer.

Beth had snorted. “I’ve never even met her. She’s just tacky. People need to know. It’s contagious.” I’d laughed along, feeling a pang of guilt for being so mean. But the alcohol dulled any real contrition, and I’d spent the rest of the night listening, and adding, to Beth’s commentary about all the people she seemingly hated. We’d ended up drinking a lot together and going out for pizza in the early hours of the morning. She was so funny, and I knew I didn’t want to get on her bad side.

Looking back now, it was not an auspicious start to a friendship. And though Beth has matured, she’s still snarky as hell. Anneliese is on to something.

“Thanks for telling me that. We’re not exactly talking now anyway.” Anneliese resumes stroking my arm, her nails grazing my skin, my scalp prickling with pleasure.

“You could probably use the break,” she says softly, and I feel my eyes getting heavier as she starts to pet my head, her nails now sending glorious shivers down my spine.

12

August 1996

Long after Suzy has had her bath, which Georgia commandeered, and has been put to bed, Annie hears the Kellers and Georgia out on the back porch. Annie is getting ready for bed herself. She doesn’t mean to eavesdrop, but she’s in the kitchen getting an apple, her feet soundless on the tiles. She hears her name.