He opened the glass front door and held it for me. “You ready to fraternize with the enemy?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shooting him a tentative glance. “Is the enemy nice?”

Maybe they were nicer than my supposed allies. It wouldn’t take much these days.

“Nah, we’re all terrible people,” he said, nudging me toward the kitchen. “Let’s go grab a drink.”

We walked through the hallway and past the living room full of people I didn’t recognize. My panic continued to escalate.

“Is Shiv here?” I asked, scanning the house. “I feel like I need another girl if I’m going to survive this.”

“Sure is,” he said. “Not sure where, but we can look for her.”

As we walked into the kitchen, Dallas strolled in the back door. “Carter,” he said, giving him an air pistol. “Just the person I wanted to see. We’re out of beer.”

“How the hell?” Chase gestured. “It hasn’t even been two hours, Ward.”

“Didn’t go as far as I thought it would.” Dallas shrugged, leaning against the kitchen counter. He was definitely tipsy. Which explained the bad trade he’d offered Chase.

Chase sighed. “You blew up my phone for the past hour and didn’t think to mention this?”

“Thought we had more in the beer fridge out in the garage. But we don’t, and you’re the only one sober enough to drive.” Dallas gave him another air pistol. Yep, drunk. “Thanks, man.”

“You fuckers can’t plan for shit.” Chase glanced down at me, expression apologetic. “Sorry. Want to run back out with me?”

Shiv came inside from the patio door and shut it behind her. “Or you can stay here with me. Dal can go with Chase. We were about to play a drinking game. I think there’s still one beer in the fridge.”

“I can stay,” I said, “but I have to go easy on the drinking. I don’t think Chase wants a repeat of the night we met.” I peeked up at him and grinned.

He laughed and gave my shoulders a squeeze. “Well, at least it got us here.”

* * *

Half an hour later, we wrapped up one round of a drinking game during which I drank water instead of beer because I was still genuinely afraid of repeating the incident at XS. People began to filter out of the basement, leaving me with Shiv and Aaron, a second-year player from the Falcons.

Shiv said, “I was undeclared to start. But I changed to psychology when I transferred to Boyd this year.”

Suddenly, there was a crash of breaking glass from upstairs.

“Oh my god,” she muttered. “I swear, sometimes…”

“Want help?” I asked, pushing to stand.

“It’s okay. I’ll be right back.”

Aaron turned to me. “You’re a journalism major too? I hear the Callingwood news lab is amazing.”