“Yeah,” I say. “A little bit. I’m in a class about it now, but it’s been my first introduction.” I reach for my backpack to pull out my notebook and a pen.

“You want some?” Brett says. I look up to see him holding out the bong to Sara.

Her eyes go wide. I’m about to launch into my speech, that she doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to and that she shouldn’t feel bad, when a huge smile breaks across her face.

“Sure,” she says. “Why not?”

My eyebrows shoot up, but I look away so she doesn’t see. I open my notebook to a fresh page and write the date at the top.

I underline it a few times and then write ideation below. And now I’ve officially run out of things to distract me.

I look at Sara, who is balancing the bong on her panty-hosed knees. She holds the lighter in her hand and is looking at it like it’s some sort of artifact from an alien civilization.

“I don’t, uh, know how to...” She looks to me and then to Brett.

“Oh here,” he says, taking the lighter from her. “Watch out for your hair.”

She pulls the silky blond curtain away from her face, holding it in a ball behind her head, and Brett sparks the lighter. Curls of white smoke float toward her lips, and then Brett pulls the pin and she breathes it in.

She throws her head back, coughing uncontrollably. Her eyes turn glossy and her face bright red, but she is smiling through her gasps.

“I’ll get you some water,” Brett says, taking the bong from her.

“You okay?” I ask.

I hear a cabinet open and close and then the sound of a faucet in the kitchen.

Sara continues to cough but nods.

By the time Brett has emerged from the kitchen with a cup, she’s caught her breath.

“Thank you,” she says, reaching for the glass.

“How do you feel?”

She furrows her brow, considering this. “I don’t know.” She looks back and forth between us. “A little light-headed, but that might just be because of all the coughing,” she laughs.

“Fair enough,” Brett says. He offers the bong to Braden, who takes it and needs no help or instruction to smoke.

“Beer?” Brett asks us.

“Sure,” I say.

Sara just nods.

“What do you have?” Braden asks Brett. He tries to hand the bong to me, but I shake my head. He sets it on the coffee table without a word.