Only Will seemed to notice—June was busy looking at her phone. Will had been watching Rosie pine for Hunter for the last two years. She wasn’t the only one. He wasn’t sure if it was Hunter’s money or the confidence that came from it that caused girls to fall all over him. Probably a little of both.

Will heard a car door close, and he turned to see a pale-green Prius pulling into the lot behind them. It was Maddie—her car always stuck out in a town full of SUVs and pickup trucks. She got out and walked along the path toward the benches where they sat.

“Let’s drop the party talk for now,” Will said quietly, and everyone nodded, seeming to understand. He waved to Maddie, and Hunter got up from the bench to make room for her next to Will.

Hunter passed around cigarettes, and they sat smoking and trying not to talk about the party, which was hard, because it was all that was on anyone’s mind. Maddie was quiet, Will noticed, but at least she was there with them. Will thought about how she’d downed those two little bottles of vodka in his truck, and he tried to get a whiff of what she had in her water bottle without her noticing. Did it smell vaguely alcoholic, or was he imagining it?

Hunter was talking about the dorms at Princeton. “Make sure you put in a request for me as your roommate,” he said to Will. “My dad can talk to the dean and make sure that we get assigned together.”

Will nodded. Hunter still seemed sure that everything was going to turn out okay. But why shouldn’t he be? Over the last few years he’d totaled his car, let his grades drop, and had even gotten caught with pills at school, and none of it had seemed to matter. His dad had bailed him out every time. Will wasn’t nearly as confident. He didn’t have that safety net.

Hunter’s phone buzzed and he looked at it. “Speak of the devil,” he said. “That’s my dad. I gotta run.” He kissed June goodbye and then leaned over the back of the bench to give Maddie’s shoulders a squeeze. “It was good to see you,” he said.

Maddie jumped at Hunter’s touch. She turned around and stared at him with wide eyes, a frown forming. “Don’t touch me,” she said loudly.

Hunter backed away, surprised.

“Hey,” Will said gently, standing up. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s just us. Okay, Maddie?”

Hunter looked flustered. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what I did.”

June finally looked away from her phone. “What did you do?” she asked Hunter, her eyes narrowed.

“Nothing!” Hunter said. “I just touched her shoulders. That’s it.”