lavish cocktails and oversize bottles of champagne.
“How much do the drinks cost?” Jenny worried aloud, but neither of them heard her.
Kate’s friends were already ensconced in a large elevated booth overlooking the dance floor. Kate’s on-again-off-again boyfriend Griff Rothenberg sat next to a glamorous brunette, who leaned toward him and giggled suggestively while he ignored her, his eyes searching the dance floor restlessly. He spotted Kate, and his face lit up with wild desperation.
As the girls mounted the steps to the booth, a security guard stepped in front of them.
Griff sprang to his feet. “She’s with us,” he said.
The guard turned. “Which one?” he asked.
“Oh. All of them,” Griff replied, and Jenny realized he hadn’t even noticed her, or Aubrey either, so preoccupied was he with Kate.
Griff sat down and slid over to make room, and the three girls crammed into the booth, thigh-to-thigh. Kate’s friends were the most uniformly beautiful people Jenny had ever seen, from Griff with his fine profile and head of sun-streaked hair, to the glamorous brunette, to a waif with mile-long eyelashes who looked like Edie Sedgwick and turned out to be the daughter of a famous billionaire. (The bodyguard who’d stopped them belonged to her.) Jenny recognized a few people from Carlisle, from the frat parties Kate took them to, but most were strangers – Kate’s friends from Odell, or kids from her set who went to other schools but hung out whenever they were back in New York at the same time. Every single one of them was thrilled to see Kate, and completely uninterested in Aubrey and Jenny after saying a cold hello when Kate introduced them. Jenny wondered why she was there, and thought about leaving. The music was too loud, plus she was worried they’d get arrested for underage drinking, which would put her scholarship money at risk. She tapped Kate on the shoulder and said she might leave. Kate snorted and handed her a Cosmopolitan – the first of many – which was tart and delicious and extremely strong, then shouted, “Lighten up and come dance!” She pulled Jenny down the steps into the middle of a gyrating mob. Disco lights flickered over them, and the bass line of the music throbbed deep in Jenny’s head. Kate twirled and flipped her hair wildly, then did an Egyptian dance that made Jenny laugh.
Nobody alive could resist Kate in party mode. Why even try?
Jenny swayed to the music and grabbed another drink from a passing tray. As the alcohol hit her bloodstream, she thought, Lucas who? Kate was right: Jenny should lighten up and enjoy life. Jenny was the one who’d broken things off with him, though she’d regretted it terribly the second she did it. She wanted to experience college without the pressure of a – let’s face it – precarious relationship. Well, this was experiencing college. Kate was her entrée into the high life, and she should appreciate that, not get mad at Kate for being Kate, for attracting boys, which was something she couldn’t help doing. Maybe if Jenny stopped sulking and started paying attention, Kate’s magic would rub off on her.
Hours passed in a drunken fog. Kate got into a loud argument with Griff, who left in a huff, though to Jenny’s great relief, not before making a big show of picking up the tab. The sun was rising as the three girls raced back up Park Avenue in a cab, the green lights falling into place one after the other, hypnotically. Kate had passed out, drooling, her head lolling back against the slimy vinyl seat. The world swam around Jenny in a wonderful way. She’d never been so drunk before, and she finally got why people liked it. Letting yourself lose control, allowing yourself to forget painful things and just have some mindless fun – people did it for a reason. Kate did it all the time, and she didn’t suffer for it.
Not everybody was as good at avoiding consequences, however. Jenny’s eyes focused on Aubrey, sitting in the middle looking pale and wasted. The deep purple shadows ringing her roommate’s eyes worried Jenny.
“Hey,” Jenny said, clutching Aubrey’s hand as the taxi hit a bump. “Are you okay?”
“Super drunk, but yeah,” Aubrey said.
“You had fun?” Jenny asked. Her voice was hoarse from all the shouting she’d done in the club. She sounded like Kate, with that throaty-sexy thing that was part of Kate’s mystique.
“Yeah, totally,” Aubrey said with a sloshed-looking grin. “This guy Elliot, who’s a friend of Griff’s from – somewhere? He was into me. He asked me to have sex in the bathroom.”
Jenny laughed. “Was he into you, or did he just want to get laid?”
“No, he was into me. I mean, there were other girls who would’ve done it with him. But even after I said no, he kept talking to me. Kate was right. It’s the blond hair. That and I lost a few pounds.”
“Aubrey, you don’t need to lose weight,” Jenny said, but Aubrey didn’t reply. “I’m glad you didn’t do it with him. Not that I thought you would.”
“I was worried he’d kiss and tell. I don’t want Griff to think I’m a slut.”
“Who cares what Griff thinks?”
“I don’t want to get talked about.”
“Right, that makes sense. You don’t want to get a disease, either.”
“Oh, Elliot’s friends with Griff and Kate, I’m sure he doesn’t have a disease. Anyway, Kate thinks I need to sleep with someone and get the whole virginity thing out of the way, you know? She thinks it’s holding me back.”
“Holding you back how?”
“Like, socially. I see her point, I just haven’t found the right situation yet.”
“I’ll say. Losing your virginity in a nightclub bathroom? You can do better than that. Wait for a guy who treats you right.”
“Well, Elliot did show me a picture of his dog.”
Jenny burst out laughing. Aubrey laughed, too, and snuggled up against her, laying her head down on Jenny’s shoulder.
“I feel like you guys are my good angel and my bad angel, sitting on my shoulder, whispering in my ear what I should do,” Aubrey said, slurring her words adorably.
“Which one of us are you going to listen to, sweetie?” Jenny asked. She stroked Aubrey’s hair, which was like a silver cloud, doubled by Jenny’s drink-blurred vision.
“I can’t decide. I love you both.”
“Be careful. Kate can be a bad influence.”
But Jenny couldn’t muster much conviction to back up her words. Kate’s head bounced against the seat as the taxi sped along, and she looked so vulnerable in her openmouthed stupor that Jenny felt guilty, and reached across Aubrey to shift Kate’s head to a more secure position. How ungrateful was she to accept the free drinks and the hospitality, then say snarky things about Kate while she was passed out drunk in the seat next to them? Kate hadn’t been under any obligation to include them tonight. She’d taken them out on the town, shown them a fabulous time, and asked nothing in return. She did that at school, too, a lot. Kate had proven herself to be a generous friend. Jenny shouldn’t let jealousy over a guy poison their friendship, especially not a guy who she’d chosen to break up with of her own free will. The problem was, as often as she told herself that she’d been ready to leave Lucas behind, so they could focus on college and date other people, deep down, she knew that was a lie.
