His arms were draped over both of us like he was flirting, walking us away from the crowd for some alone time with us. It was a smart move. It made me suspicious of what Brent knew or experienced in the life of the insane nepo baby club. We slowed down to a stroll, appearing unaware that there was a–potentially–dead guy in the backyard.

“I shouldn’t have opened my mouth.”

I kept silent, flicking Brent’s arm off me. What was I supposed to say? She made a terribly morbid joke after looking at that guy firsthand. He was so...contorted.

Just breathe. All you can do is breathe right now.

Noticing my hand was pulled into someone’s hand, I tried to focus on the feeling. Everything started to feel far away, blurry. Like I was slipping away from reality. There was no way that happened, right?

“Do you two know what really goes on with the wealthiest families?”

It was Brent’s hand I was holding. I didn’t want to be holding his hand.

“Some of it. Not like I’m in the biggest of the circles.” Kelly’s voice was far away.

His skin was warm and soft, though.

“You’ve been using drugs, then?”

There was a callus on the palm of his hand.

“Fallon?” His voice also sounded far away.

He was looking down at me from pretty high up.

Was I on the ground?

“Hey.” He bent down and pulled my hand back into his, but I yanked it away.

I shook my head and things came back into focus. Focus. “Kelly’s doing drugs?”

“Chill. Most people try something at some point.” He looked back at Kelly standing behind him. “For right now, you know nothing. My best bet is this gets tied up with a nice bow as an accidental death and no one will be the wiser. I’ve seen it happen more than once.”

I’ve seen it happen...

So it was a normal occurrence. Lovely. I just had my first wave of shock and disassociation and I wasn’t sure I was quite back yet. The next party awaited us and I was on the ground trying not to die. Throwing up was a better option than feeling disconnected from reality. My head was spinning and I tried to reconnect with my body, with anything. I felt the concrete under my hands; it was cool to the touch. The night air was getting an edge to it. Grounding. I was coming back down.

Freak outs could come later. It was time to stand up and finish the night.

Beta Kappa Phi–BKP as everyone referred to it–had a line up at the door. The exclusive party was ready early, per Brent’s request. Someone was at the front with a tablet, checking names. The party was for the people on the list only.