Trevor looked at Claudia. She seemed to be concentrating really hard. Down Under was a foul-smelling bar near campus that was known for a loose ID policy. Trevor had been there once with Boyd, but they’d left after a drunk guy called Boyd a faggot.

“Who’s Chad?” asked the nameless girl.

“We went to school with him for a while,” said Adrienne. “Then he moved to L.A.”

“Why would Claudia care if he’s coming?”

“I don’t care,” said Claudia.

“They had a little thing in high school and she dumped him for Ben and he got all upset.”

“Is that what happened?” asked Lolly.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Claudia. “It was a long time ago.”

“Right,” said Adrienne. “And you’re cool now. Like I said. He goes to NYU, too, right?”

“Right,” said Claudia. “He’s in my dorm.”

They pulled up to the club and Trevor let the girls get out first. It was the kind of place he’d seen on TV: a long velvet rope with people lined up waiting to get in; big men with walkie-talkies and clipboards standing guard; red light bleeding from inside each time the heavy entrance doors opened. Lolly and Adrienne walked to the front and the rope parted for them all. A tall woman in a sparkly black dress and sandals that buckled up her calves showed them to an elevated corner-booth area. The table at their ankles was crowded with half a dozen bottles of liquor and glass carafes of what he assumed were cranberry juice and orange juice. Perrier. Ice in a silver bucket. Harris went to work, kneeling down, pouring, passing. The music was too loud and the lights were too low. Everybody seemed to move back and forth between behaving as if they were on display and entirely alone. Adrienne stood at the railing separating their sofas from the main dance floor, posing with her lips around her cocktail straw as she surveyed the room, assessing. Trevor watched as she stirred her drink, then stuck her thumb in her nose, pinched something out, and let it fall from her fingers to the floor.

Claudia was at the railing, too, facing the crowd but not examining with Adrienne’s purpose. It was as if she were looking at the ocean.

“You okay?” he asked her.

She nodded. “Are you having fun?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Good. Thanks for coming.”

“Thanks for inviting me.”

“Lolly wants to hook up with you,” Claudia said. “You should if you want. Not that you need my permission. She’s cool. She does the whole Earth Mother thing. She loves nice guys.”

What could he say? “Well, that’s me.”

At least that made her smile.

“Drink?” shouted Ben, holding a glass, motioning to Trevor.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” said Claudia.

Trevor took the glass from Ben and sat down.

“Happy birthday,” Trevor said. “It’s a big one.”