Mitch took off his skis and threw his life preserver on the back of the boat and swam around, leaving Sherri alone with Rye. His leather Sperry Top-Siders were so worn that they looked like they’d been passed down from generation to generation. Sherri didn’t know what to make of this trust-fund guy who acted like he was used to getting whatever he wanted. He was about her own age, but their lives couldn’t have been more different. He abandoned the captain’s chair and moved to the bow of the boat to sit with her. “Mitch is a great guy and all that, don’t get me wrong, but he doesn’t seem like he’s your type,” he said.

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. After he leaves, you and your friends should come to a party at my place.” He looked at her the way Mr. Saito and Ron had. That was an experience she still hadn’t made sense of. She wanted to just forget it and move on, and the drugs made that easier, but even through the haze of drinks and coke she felt his leer igniting a combination of fear and anger, both at him (and guys like him) and at herself because she’d been such an idiot—so stupid she’d even missed out on earning a free moped, and who knew where those photos might surface?

“Do you have some blow?” she asked. She craved that feeling again, craved the way the coke sealed her up inside, made her impervious.

“Sure,” Rye said. He licked his finger, reached into a bag, and covered it with powder. “Open up,” he said, and he rubbed his finger over her gums. Sherri’s mouth turned instantly numb, a strange and wonderful feeling, followed by that explosion of confidence and energy she’d felt earlier that day.

“I want to swim!” Without even taking off her T-shirt or jean shorts, she jumped into the lake. The water was freezing, much colder than Beulah had been a month ago. It sucked the air out of her lungs. Mitch was about thirty yards away, and she swam toward him. It was one thing to swim in the deep part of Lake Beulah, but she’d heard that Lake Geneva was almost a hundred and fifty feet deep, almost as deep as the Water Tower in Chicago was tall.