“I guess I’m not surprised.”

“He sucks, Ally. I’m going to form a protest. I’ll get every Norm in town to stay home.”

I snorted a laugh. “Like I’d do that to you.”

This party was like a jackpot for Annie. Usually she had to sneak into Crestie parties to do her anthropological research. Now she was actually invited. Besides, keeping the Norms home wouldn’t exactly hurt Jake. All of his close friends were Cresties. In fact, with the way his brain had been working lately, I had to wonder if he’d only invited the Norms to make me, Chloe, and Will feel even more left out.

As the music swelled to its crescendo overhead, I couldn’t help remembering Jake’s birthday last year. When he’d gotten his car and the first thing he’d done was zip right over to the Orchard View Condominiums to see me and we’d driven up to the country club and we’d kissed. For the first time.

“You know you did the right thing breaking up with him, right?” Annie said. “The strong thing.”

“Yeah.” My voice was thick. “I know.”

“Are you okay?” Annie asked.

“Ugh. I wish people would stop asking me that,” I replied, swiping one tear off my bottom lashes. Mercifully, the wedding march had ended, and my mom started motioning to me to wrap it up. “I’m fine. Thanks for letting me know, Annie, but I’ve gotta go. We’re doing final measurements.”

“Cool. Well, have fun.”

“I will,” I said.

I hung up the phone and forced a smile onto my face as my mother and the seamstress approached with their measuring tape and pins. For the next fifteen minutes I was turned and poked and prodded and appraised, the whole time just trying as hard as I could not to burst into tears.

jake

My party was the party that kicked every other party’s ass. As I did a lap around the game room, I actually started to think that every single person I had invited had shown up. At least it seemed like it. There were dozens of people gathered around the pool table, faces I barely recognized hunched over the pinball machines, and the Idiot Twins had drawn a crowd at Ping-Pong, jumping and flailing and hitting backhands like they were on the court at the US Open or something. The music was loud, the beer was flowing, and everyone was having a kick-ass time. I was on top of the world.

I half wished Ally would try to crash, just so she could see how not affected I was by the fact that she’d dumped me.

“I can’t believe your parents actually let you have this thing.”

Shannen strolled over to me and rested her crooked arm on top of my shoulder. She looked fucking hot in the skinniest jeans I’d ever seen, with a wide-necked top falling off her shoulder. And no bra strap. So was she commando under there, or wearing some insane, strapless bra? Did girls know how much the not knowing drove us crazy?

“Yeah, well. Dad’s still psyched I’m not a baby daddy and he has friends in high places, so no one’s gonna be shutting us down.” I turned toward her and put my beer cup on the top of the billiards cabinet. She was standing so close, I could almost see down her shirt and get my answer. When I realized I was looking, I almost gagged. This was Shannen. She used to be my best friend. If I was thinking about getting a peek, then I was definitely seriously drunk. “I’m glad you came,” I said, looking away.

“Me too,” she replied.

Was it just me, or was that her sultry voice?

“Come with me. I need to talk to you.”

She took my fingers lightly and tugged me toward the door. My heart pounded. Whatever this was, it was probably not a good idea. But I couldn’t think of a reason not to go—she had no boyfriend, and I definitely had no girlfriend—so I went. Shannen led me out into the kitchen, past the dozens of bowls of snacks and hundreds of forgotten cups, and over to the foyer. She was heading for the stairs. I glanced down at her ass and instantly felt myself stiffen. This was Shannen. This was not good. This was very not good.

But then she turned around and sat down on the bottom step. I glanced up toward the second floor in confusion.

“Have a seat.” She patted the space next to her. I sat.

“What’re we doing?” I asked.

Shannen looked down at her beer cup, held lightly between her fingertips. “We used to be best friends, right, Jake? We used to tell each other everything?”

Suddenly I didn’t like where this was going. I leaned back, resting my elbows on the steps behind me. The music was dull from in here, and I was already starting to lose my buzz.

“Yeah,” I said.

“So for old times’ sake, I just want you to tell me one thing,” Shannen said. She placed her cup aside and leaned back next to me. “Are you ever going to talk to Chloe again?”

I balked. “That’s what this is about? Shit.”

“I’m serious. I just want to know,” Shannen said. “Because this torture stuff you’ve got going on? It’s not you. And I think if you talk to her, you might stop doing it.”

I felt like my eyes were on fire. “Why does no one seem to get what she did to me was not even close to being in the realm of forgivable?”

“I didn’t ask you to forgive her,” Shannen said simply. “I asked you to hear her out.”

“Why should I?” I demanded.

“She fucked up.” Shannen shrugged. “Everyone fucks up.” She picked up her cup again. “You fucked up last summer and everyone kept right on talking to you. Even Ally.”

The sound of her name squelched the buzz completely. My chest felt hollow, but heavy somehow. “Yeah. And look how long that lasted,” I shot back.

Shannen laughed. “It lasted a long frickin’ time,” she said, her eyes dancing. “She stuck with you even knowing you banged her best friend. She stuck with you even though you were at Chloe’s beck and call for months. And she stuck with you even after you became the loud-mouthed asshole from hell you’ve been for the past two months.”

“Wow. Tell me how you really feel,” I said.

She took a swig of her beer and held it in her mouth for a second before swallowing. “I’m just saying. That girl stayed with you longer than I would have. She stayed with you longer than most people would have. Because she loves you.”

Something was welling up in my throat. I tried to swallow it back, but it wouldn’t go.

“But back to Chloe,” Shannen said. “You should talk to her. You’re going to do it eventually anyway, right? I mean, look. You hated me last summer, but here we are.”

She nudged me with her shoulder and I sat up straight, rubbing my hands together. “Yeah. How did that happen?”

Shannen’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure….” She sat up too. “Somewhere in there we just started talking again. But the thing is, you don’t have that kind of time with Chloe. You can’t just let it happen. Five more months and we’re outta here. Everyone’s either gonna go off to college remembering you as a cool guy with awesome friends”—she paused and gestured modestly to herself—“or as the complete and utter prick who tortured a pregnant girl.”

Over in the game room, one of the Idiot Twins whooped over a win and everyone applauded. Meanwhile, I felt the full weight of what Shannen was saying. I felt the clock start ticking on my senior year. On life as I knew it. On any scrap of a chance I had left with Ally. To me the future had always been this kind of hazy blur. Something fictional that the future me would have to deal with, not the me me. But now here I was. Having to deal. Shannen got up, hooked one thumb into the back pocket of her jeans, and tipped her cup in my direction.

“Just something to think about.”

“Says the girl who spent last year torturing Ally Ryan,” I said, trying to get in the last word.

Shannen slowly smiled. “Haven’t you heard, Jake? I’m reformed.”

“Or maybe this is just a prank like everything else, right, Shan?” I said, pulling myself up by the banister. “I go over to apologize to Chloe and she, what, throws a pie in my face?”