“I don’t know. Sodomize the anxiety away?” He runs his hand through his perfect hair, giving total cologne ad vibes. “Apparently, I have to be frugal now. Whatever that means.”

I think for a second. “Why don’t you just rack up some more DJing gigs now that you’re officially a USC dropout? The money’s good, right?”

He flicks his eyes around in a quick roll and gives me a look like I should know better. “Working for my money is too stressful.”

“Obviously,” I say. “What was I thinking?”

There’s a brief moment where we’re all laughing at that and it feels nostalgic, like old times, the three of us perfectly in sync.

Then Mei snorts with disdain as her eyes settle across the room again. “Like, what is this? Look at them.”

Brandi’s leaning over to see something my father is showing her on his phone, her tits pressed into his arm. This is getting obnoxious now. They exchange a few more words, he makes her laugh, then they shake hands for the second time. Their eyes linger in a hold, like their hands. I half expect him to slap her on the ass as she slinks away.

“Who’s that?” Jared asks.

Mei jumps in to fill him in.

I tune them out as a woman draped in a silver McQueen gown and cropped fur jacket reaches over and links her arm inside my father’s, replacing Brandi. Her long, almost-black hair frames smooth skin that looks retouched.

His new bitch.

I keep my gaze trained on her as she leans in to kiss him, pressing her palm against his chest as she raises to the tips of her toes. I’ve heard them fucking. I’ve heard her guttural screams reverberate from his wing of the house. They were raw, desperate, the kind of sounds a woman makes when she’s trying to cement herself in a man’s future, part performance. I know she isn’t pretending to be attracted to him. But that doesn’t mean she’s not after his money too.

I don’t trust her.

I close my eyes, just for a second, and see my mom, her eyes locked open forever, neck bent like the cruelest lie. My insides roil. I force myself to push the image away and swallow down the bile.

My father kisses her back, a real kiss. I want to rip his tongue out of his mouth and strangle him with it.

“Fuck this.” I reach over and snatch Mei’s glass out of her hand and swallow it down like medicine, like it can cure all my problems.

There’s only so much of this shit I can take.

Jared is staring at me. “At least you’re already home.”

I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.