“What are you doing here?” Junior Davis might not own the place, but he won the football game today, and his challenge to Mike is full of authority. Everybody turns to see who he’s talking about. For a split second, Mike doesn’t have an answer to that question. He looks out of place, a leftover, like everybody but him is in high school, everybody belongs here, everybody knows who they are and what they’re doing, except for him. Grimshaw hasn’t seen him yet. She is dancing on the diving board, moving her arms in a kind of drunken flamenco. She doesn’t need music.

Mike snaps his fingers at her. “Come on, Mel.”

Grimshaw stops dancing and turns slowly and blinks at him. She tilts her head at him like he looks familiar, but she can’t remember who he is.

“Let’s go,” he says again, more forcefully this time. He goes to the edge of the pool and reaches for her. She leans away from him, and he stretches forward. She loses her balance and starts flailing her arms. Mike lunges forward to grab her by the wrist.

“Let’s go,” he repeats. “I’m taking you home.” She manages to break his grip.

I step out. As he reaches for her, I pull her away. He leans out over the water, gets his feet caught in the clothes piled by the end of the diving board, and trips forward. As he falls, he puts his hands out for Grimshaw to catch him, but at that moment I step up onto the diving board and grab her. Just as I get her off the diving board, I hear a massive splash behind me. But I don’t turn around to see what happened. I push her in front of me through the house, past all the people, and out into the front yard. We find Tim asleep in his truck, with his head tipped back and his mouth wide open. I get in first and pull Grimshaw in after me.

“Tim.” I shake him awake. “We need you to drive us home, like, now.”

“Ah, sure,” he says. He sits there for a minute, staring straight ahead of him. “Where are we, again?”

“Mizerak’s. Now go.”

By now, Grimshaw is crying. “I didn’t know he was here. I thought he went to California.” She’s trying to get out of the truck. “But he stayed. For me! Because he loves me.”

“So what?” I snap at her. I turn to Tim. “Will you start your truck now?”

“I can’t remember where I put my keys,” he says slowly.

“In the ignition.”

“Everyone else thinks I’m trash,” she cries. “Did you see that today, with Allen Mizerak?”