Jade smirked. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
That makes two of us. I flipped my lights off as I pulled over on Sparrow Road, behind the Markhams’ house. Lauren slipped out the back door. Her black North Face was zipped up to her chin, and she was wearing leggings stuffed in Uggs.
She was breathless when she climbed into my backseat.
Jade held up her phone. “Tyrell texted me that he’s having people over.”
In the rearview mirror, I saw Lauren’s eyes light up. It was a terrible idea, even though I had seen girls Lauren’s age—Keelie March, Brendan March’s big-titted little sister—at Sully’s parties. I leaned into Jade and hissed: “We’re not bringing her to Tyrell’s. He’ll narc on us to Andrew.”
Lauren frowned, and Jade rolled her eyes. “Let’s just go to Taco Bell.”
“Wait.” An idea wheedled its way into my brain. “Ben’s visiting his friend who goes to Milwaukee,” I said. “I’ll call him and see if anything’s going on.”
“Milwaukee the college?” Lauren squeaked.
Jade stared at me like I was smoking crack. “That’s an hour and a half from here.”
“It’s only nine o’clock. Stop being lame, both of you.”
Where are you, I texted Ben. I’m coming to Milwaukee.
Now?? Jesus, Bay.
Come on. I’m bored.
I could hear my brother sighing. Then the ellipsis popped up in the text box. He was taking a long time with his response.
Party at Billy’s frat later. Kappa Tau house. What are you gonna tell mom?
Sleeping at jade’s, duh.
When we got to Milwaukee, Jade started to bitch that Lauren would never pass for a college freshman. I looked the kid up and down. She’s tall for her age, so I figured if she kept the jacket on no one would notice her flat chest. I got my eyeliner out of my purse and did a little magic.
I looked over at Jade, who was fiddling with her Warby Parker frames. Her allergies have been so bad she hasn’t worn her contacts in weeks.
“Give Lauren your glasses,” I told Jade, who said, “What the fuck?”
“They’ll make her look older.”
“I’d like to be able to see the shitshow that’s about to unfold, thanks.”
“It’s not like you’re blind without them.” I slipped the frames off Jade’s face. “It’s like I gave you beer goggles and you didn’t even have to suck down a Natty.”
“That’s a type of beer, right?” Lauren was adjusting the glasses on her face. Jade just stared at her for a beat, then looked at me. “Your brother is going to shit himself when he sees this.”
I pushed that thought out of my head and locked the car. Most likely, Wonder Brother wouldn’t even recognize little Lauren Markham—he hasn’t seen her in years.
As we climbed the steps to the frat house, I could practically feel Lauren quaking behind me. The guy at the door was a weasel-faced kid with a decent body. Probably a pledge. Badly in need of Proactiv. I was prepared to drop Ben’s name, but the guy just yawned and told us it was five bucks each. I pulled the bills out of my purse while Jade muttered about how the house looked like a crack den.
“Relax.” I shoved her beer cup at her as we fell into line for the keg. “I’ll stay sober and drive. Just please get wasted so I don’t have to hear your bitching.”
I was feeling particularly nasty, probably still roiling at the thought of Kacey and Andrew in Madison together. See, the more comfortable I am with someone, the less I’m afraid of acting like a total monster. But Jade actually looked hurt, so I draped an arm over her shoulder as an olive branch.
“I just hope you know what you’re doing,” she muttered, while I nudged Lauren to let the sad sack (another pledge) manning the keg fill her cup.
We had to shoulder our way to the flip cup table and planted ourselves at the end of the line. Lauren looked terrified of the cup in her hand. I put a finger at the base and tipped it toward her mouth. She giggled, foam sticking to her upper lip, some of the beer missing her mouth and sloshing on the floor.
“You’re at a frat party,” I said. “I bet What’shername who’s been giving you shit has never been to a frat party.”
“Keelie March,” Lauren corrected me. “She brought vodka to the cast party for Oklahoma! and they all got drunk.”
That was when I locked eyes with a guy in a Kappa tee. He and his friends descended on us like sharks. Asked if we went to UW.
“Just visiting,” I said. “I think I want to go here next year.”
Frat boy buddy offered me a tour of his freshman dorm. I said maybe I’d take him up on that. Jade rolled her eyes. An overwhelming urge to hit her seized me. Any time I talked about college, she did that. Acted like I was being painfully basic. She just doesn’t get it—that shitty frat house filled with fives and sixes, it may be beneath us, but at the same time it’s not. I’m not beneath playing the game if I can get the fuck out of Broken Falls.
Sometimes I think Jade thinks the only way we’re getting out is by Thelma and Louise–ing it. I wanted to grab her, tell her that movie wasn’t real. This is our alternative to staying in Broken Falls forever.
I didn’t get the chance to pull her aside and ask her what her problem was, because the guy in the Kappa shirt had mentioned that there were people blazing upstairs, and Jade was gone like a dog after a squirrel. Lauren and I waited for our turn at the flip cup table.
“That looks hard,” she said. “I think I should just watch you.”
“You’ve got this,” I told her sweetly. “Your brother is amazing at this game.”
“My brother goes to parties?” Lauren asked. Her face was scrunched up like I’d talked about her parents having sex.
“He used to,” I said. “When we were freshmen.”
“Now he’s such a nerd. Every time we go to Pleasant Plains we have to stop at that game store where those guys play Magic: The Gathering and it’s so embarrassing.”
“Seems like he and Kacey are pretty close,” I pressed.
A spark of something in her eyes. Jealousy, maybe. “We both are. I mean, she’s our sister.”
“She’s your sister. He’s like, not her real brother.” I raised an eyebrow, like I’d just thought of it. “Do they hang out alone a lot?”
Lauren craned her neck to get a look at the flip cup table. Only half listening to me. “I mean, maybe? They’re always arguing and laughing about dumb stuff, and when I ask what they’re talking about they won’t tell me.”
There was a curling in my gut. The thought made my blood boil, but I couldn’t grill Lauren any longer because two spots opened up at the flip cup table. She was so bad it would have been funny if it weren’t for the intense girls on our team giving her razor glares every time she fucked us up. Two games later, we got kicked off.
“That was fun. And hard.” Lauren was giggly, on the verge of sloppy. I should have known a couple beers would be all it took. I couldn’t bring the kid home like that, and I was over the stupid party anyway. My phone said we’d been there for an hour and I still hadn’t seen Ben.