On the flyer was a woman in a silver metallic bikini, oil-shiny, hair cascading around her shoulders. The woman’s lips were slightly parted. The woman was so happy to be on the front of a flyer. She wanted to get fucked.

TMS Productionz presents Wet n Wild, the flyer read.

“What is this?” Jeanette said.

Johnson watched Jeanette watch the flyer. “You ever been to a foam party, sweetie?” he said. “This one starts in an hour. Lasts all night.”

All night, all ages, read the flyer. No Cover for Ladies. Little cutout faces of five men surrounded the woman in the bikini whose hard breasts shone like apples the size of their heads. They were the faces of various DJs—DJ Ztar Ztruck, DJ Taz, DJ Juicy J. Bubbles floated like halos around their heads.

“Let me ask my friend,” Jeanette said.

Sasha and Jeanette had their first fight. Sasha said no, absolutely not, she would not go anywhere with a man she didn’t know. This had angered Jeanette. Something was finally happening to them. Something besides getting high at the car wash and eating pancakes. Something was happening to Jeanette besides her father naked and sweaty passed out on the couch and her mother carefully reapplying mascara after crying and dabbing vanilla-scented lotion between her breasts because, she said, every woman should have a “signature scent.” Something was finally happening that didn’t feature a predictable ending. Jeanette didn’t understand how someone like Sasha, who went skydiving once and drove high without her seat belt, had never considered testing what lay on the other side of men in cars who wanted them.

“I’m going whether or not you go with me,” Jeanette said to her, and knew in that instant that Sasha was pretending even more than she was, that Jeanette was harder and floating closer to the girls they both thought they were.

“I’m not bailing you out if you get stuck in South Beach or something,” Sasha said to her. Jeanette heard the door jingle. Johnson walked out of the 7-Eleven and waved a pack of Marlboros at them, smiling. “And you can keep the stupid cigarettes.”

“Fine, go home, and I’ll tell you all about the party tomorrow,” said Jeanette. “I thought you were supposed to be my best friend.”

“This is so stupid,” Sasha said, already walking toward the IHOP parking lot. Jeanette let herself wonder for a moment how bad Sasha would feel if they found Jeanette’s body the next day, maybe at the bottom of some lake or worse. She couldn’t let herself think of worse. Excitement rippled through her, and fear. Two emotions too similar to tell apart most days.

Fear was her father drunk.

But this didn’t feel like that. This felt like growing up.