She made a humming sound, and the vibrations traveled through her whole body. June was laughing at her. “There you go,” she said, and she leaned over to rub Maddie’s shoulders. At first it felt amazing, like she was melting into June’s hands. But soon it started to feel too amazing, her nerves on overload. Her stomach felt funny, and she shifted away from June and got unsteadily to her feet. “I’ll be right back,” she mumbled, and made her way across the lawn and back to the house.

Now that it was dark, the house looked sinister, glowing like a jack-o’-lantern from the light of the contractor’s lamps. The music was way too loud. She stood on the deck for a minute, trying to decide what to do. She held onto a railing, breathing hard and feeling as if the boards under her feet were heaving like the deck of a boat. She went inside to look for some water.

After that, her memories became disjointed and blurry: trying the locked handle of the bathroom door; looking in the kitchen for a clean cup. An arm around the small of her back—not Will’s, but someone else’s—holding her up on jelly knees as she leaned against the kitchen counter, and a coaxing voice in her ear, hard to hear over the roar of the party. The scent of cologne, mixed with cigarette smoke and the yeasty smell of beer, turned her stomach.

And then, one last memory, which made no sense in the context of her other memories: She lay on her back, with the full weight of a boy on top of her. It was dark and quiet, and he was kissing her, and then at some point, she was pushing his hands away as he pulled down her shorts. She remembered saying, or at least thinking, Don’t. What had she been doing upstairs?

The next thing she remembered was being in the back seat of a car, her head on another girl’s shoulder. The car stopped and the girl jostled her. “We’re here,” she said, and Maddie recognized her from her sculpture class.

“Where?” Maddie asked. Where were Rosie and June?

“Your house,” the girl replied, getting out the car and holding the door open for Maddie. “Come on.” She put her arm around Maddie and helped her to the back door, handing Maddie her purse and then helping dig her keys out. “Are you okay?” she asked, and Maddie just nodded. All she wanted to do was get upstairs and into bed.

The other girl paused for a moment, looking torn. “Do you want me to wake your mom up?” she asked.

“No, I’m okay,” Maddie said, and the girl looked relieved.

“Thanks for the ride,” Maddie remembered to say. And then she staggered upstairs and fell into a long, deep sleep.