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Back We're All in This Together
Chapters (46)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Friday
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. FOUR
  11. Saturday
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. TEN
  18. Sunday
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. Monday
  35. TWENTY-SIX
  36. TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. TWENTY-EIGHT
  38. TWENTY-NINE
  39. THIRTY
  40. THIRTY-ONE
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. EPILOGUE
  46. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Outside, they have now bypassed the coconut water and have moved on to straight Grey Goose, the bottle knotted into a pool noodle drifting back and forth between the four of them on their loungers. Anastasia has a nice buzz, and is thinking maybe it would be a good idea to call up some people and have a party. Her father and stepmother are at their camp in Lake of the Woods, and the housekeeper is off for two days – just enough time for a proper rager. But she finds she just doesn’t have the energy. All the people she would have to talk to, all of them so officious, so grateful to her. Everyone wants to be invited to Anastasia’s house, but not everybody can be. It’s just the way the world works.

As if reading her thoughts, Andy says, “We should invite Julie and Dex over. They might have some E.”

“I don’t want to do E with a bunch of dirty hipster wannabes,” she snaps. “And if you do, you probably should just go do that. Somewhere else.”

Andy drops his hand in the water and stares at her. “Maybe I will,” he says.

He tips himself out of the lounger and swims to the side of the pool. Anastasia watches him climb out, rivers of chlorinated water running down his swim trunks as he stalks off into the house. She knows he’ll be back. She lets her hand drag through the water, the Grey Goose bottle now resting on her chest, and looks over at Ryan and Dylan, smiling.

“You should go, too,” she says. “I’m sure it will be a blast.”

Ryan and Dylan glance at each other. “Just give me that bottle,” Ryan says. Anastasia hands it over. They’re not going to go anywhere. None of them are. And they know it.

—

For some reason, Anastasia finds herself thinking about the last time London was at her house. It was a night a week or so before her arrest, and it was just the two of them, eating veggie wraps from Pita Pit and working on an assignment for English class where they had to write a modern-day adaptation of Julius Caesar. Anastasia hadn’t wanted to do it – she had a great guy for English assignments – but London had said for research they could watch the Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and maybe even 10 Things I Hate About You. After the movie, London had gotten all weird and said she wanted to walk down to the lake.