“Were you just yelling at Aliyah?” Julian asks Annalisa when he reaches her.

“Yeah. Because I’m Wacko Anna White and that’s what I do!” She shoves past him and marches out of the room.

“What . . . ?” Julian looks at the space where his girlfriend has disappeared into the crowd.

Chase stands up. “Honestly, I only understood half of what happened, man. But you should probably go after her. It looked bad.”

Julian moves easily through the crowd of people to find Annalisa, who is definitely more bothered about this than she wants us to know.

“Should we go after her too?” Charlotte asks me.

“No, we don’t want to bombard her. We’ll talk to her after.”

“Does one of you want to tell me what just happened?” Chase asks.

Just then, some guy from school comes up to Charlotte and starts talking to her, making Chase narrow his eyes at him.

“Come on, Chase. Why don’t we go somewhere quieter and I’ll tell you,” I say, attempting to guide him from the room before he makes a drunken scene over nothing. Again.

Charlotte giggles at something the guy says, and Chase’s nostrils flare.

“You were literally just making out with Aliyah three minutes ago. You’re not allowed to be jealous,” I inform him, practically dragging him out of the room.

“Whatever. I’m going to get more beer.” He shrugs me off and walks to the kitchen.

Okay, so I guess he doesn’t want to know what just happened with Annalisa? I’m left standing awkwardly in the hallway for a full three seconds before Mason barrels into me.

“K-bear!” he half slurs. “What’re you doin’ in the middle of the bathroom?”

The surprise at the resurgence of my nickname only lasts a millisecond as I look around at the hallway, which is clearly not the bathroom. Mason stumbles and I steady him and move us over to the side. A part of me is so happy to hear him call me by my nickname again—it’s been a while since I’ve heard it—but the other part of me is concerned he’s got alcohol poisoning.

“How much have you had to drink?” I ask him.

His eyes are unfocused and he looks like he can’t decide to look at me or the second me he’s seeing.

“Yeah, you’re right. It is hot in here.”

He reaches up and pulls off his T-shirt, throwing it on some random guy walking by, who’s also apparently too drunk to notice the new addition hanging over his shoulder.

Okay. That happened.

“Why don’t we go sit down? Get you some water?”

“You’re so smart, k-bear. So, so smart. Way too smart for me,” he rambles and leans against the wall.

Oh no.

“I miss you, k-bear. Why aren’t we friends anymore?” He leans his head against the wall. “Are you mad at me for elbowing you in the face?”

“Mason, of course we’re friends! And I’ve told you a thousand times I’m not mad at you. It wasn’t your fault.”