“Baked?” said Ahmed loudly, and Tommy laughed and shushed him. Tommy had tar-black hair and big, almost Slavic cheekbones, and there was always some squint in his eyes. Ben had been just about to suggest getting toast and coffee in the Dish. But you were not asked to do drugs with Tommy Landon every day. Ben thought he could see Ahmed waiting for Tommy to look at the whole array of them and then ask him specifically not to come.

Ben took another run, then hiked back up with the saucer over his shoulder. Hutch and Evan were still talking with Tommy and they looked over at him. They clearly wanted Ben to nod, so he nodded.

Ben wanted to stay and talk to Alice. He realized he hadn’t seen her with Ian in forever, and he felt a rise in his chest. He wanted to be cool and witty with her friends; to maybe sled down at the same time, and to crash at the end and be entangled with her. He wanted to walk her back to the dining hall and make himself a half-coffee-half-hot-chocolate and then make one for her and have her think it was the best thing she couldn’t believe she hadn’t tried. That might be her last impression of him.

Instead, he followed the rest of the guys along a path at the top of the jump, and then back farther into an untracked patch of snow under a stand of trees. He couldn’t believe they had brought Ahmed with them. It seemed to be enough for Hutch that Tommy had selected Ahmed. Ahmed showed no recognition that they were doing anything wrong. As a Muslim, wasn’t this way against the rules for him? But maybe that was just drinking?

The pipe was cheap rainbow-colored metal. Tommy had a little baggie and he packed the pipe, and with the flame over the bowl he sucked at the mouthpiece the way Ben pictured people trying to get venom out of a snakebite. Tommy coughed once as he tried to hold it in his lungs, and then it went to Hutch, who coughed too. Ahmed was next and he tried the lighter a few times but couldn’t get the flame to catch, and when Tommy did it for him he gave an appreciative eyebrow raise as he took in the smoke. Ahmed didn’t cough at all as he held the smoke in, and then he let it out in a long stream.

The pipe came to Ben, and he considered holding it to his lips without inhaling, but he knew the flame wouldn’t pull down convincingly, and once he was doing it he couldn’t do it for a shorter time than the others had done. The urge to cough came up but then subsided as he exhaled the smoke smoothly. It went to Evan, then back to Tommy and eventually back around to Ben again.