Page 80 of Nobody in Particular

“Wow. You’ve grown up so fast in the last… week,” I say.

“I think I’ve had a growth spurt.”

“That makes a lot of sense.” I take another sip, and shudder. Then, steeling myself, I drain the rest in a couple of gulps. Eleanor watches with wide eyes, then holds out her hand for my cup. She refills it with a look I can only describe as impressed.

“Have you been drunk before?” she asks as she passes back my cup.

“Yes,” I scoff. “Once. My friend brought a flask into the tenth-grade winter dance.”

“Ooh, watch out, we have a rebel over here.” Eleanor pushes my cup to my mouth, bursting into laughter as it spills over and soaks my chin.

It doesn’t take long for her to suggest we move on to shots. As far as I’m concerned, the drinks she was pouring weren’t far from shots to begin with, so it’s not much of a jump. She teaches me to breathe in and squeeze my thumb in my own fist before I tip my head back to get better control of my gag reflex. Her soda runs out after the firstchaser, so she rummages around until she finds a bottle of wine she seems to think is fine to steal for some reason.

“Wine as a chaser?” I ask.

“It’s a sweet wine,” she says as though that explains it. This seems like a great point to me, which is definitely the vodka talking, so I just shrug.

We’re probably being antisocial, but as far as I’m concerned, our kitchen party is just as good as the one out there. We’ve been hanging in here for god knows how long when Eleanor slumps over. At first, I think she might be passing out, but then I realize she’s just sad. “Every time we do stuff with the Ashford guys, it’s weird now,” she says. “I keep expecting to see Oscar in the crowd. I wonder if that ever goes away.”

“I don’t know,” I say, taking her hand. “But it must be really tough.”

“It is. And we barely ever talk about it. It’s like—”

Before she can finish her sentence, someone speaks up behind us. “Hi, Eleanor.”

We turn together to find Santi, clutching a cup with both hands. He looks unsure of himself, like he’s expecting Eleanor to reject him.Herto rejecthim. Does he telepathically know that Eleanor’s decided she’s over him? Or, worse, did he somehow hear her tell me that, and it sparked his interest? Ew, if so.

But I’m gonna have to give him the benefit of the doubt, I think, because Eleanor’s busy looking at him like he just rode down from heaven on a floating cloud. I’m kind of glad she has a distraction from thinking about Oscar, honestly, even though I wish she had the chance to get her feelings out properly. “Hi,” she says. “You’re… here, at this party. How cool. So am I.”

Come on, baby girl. You can do better than that.

But, amazingly, Santi just smiles back. “How cool.”

Oh my god, it’s happening. I need to vanish,now. “Bathroom,” I say to Eleanor, grabbing her vodka bottle as I leave, and I’m not even sure she hears me. I turn back at the door to find Santi mid-laugh at something Eleanor’s just said.

I’m so proud of her I could burst. Look at her go.

As for me, I now have exactly zero people to hang out with. But I’m just drunk enough that I don’t really care. Vodka bottle in hand, I happily wander through the house. I’m barraged by a wave of music and thudding bass in the living room, and I weave in and out of couples making out in the hall, and then I head into the backyard where I’m hit with freezing cold air on my cheeks. It’s busy out here, too, with a few dozen students hanging out and talking or smoking, even though it’s got to be somewhere near freezing.

“Danni!” Someone tackles me from the side, and it’sHarriet. Hi, Harriet! I forgot for a second I had more friends here after all. I’m really silly. I throw myself into her arms.

“Hey,” I say. “I didn’t have anyone to talk to! But you’re here!”

“I’m here!” She chuckles. Her hair is frizzy, and her oversized denim jacket has fallen off one of her shoulders. She’s drunk and I’m drunk and we’re both grinning like idiots. “Where’s Rose?”

“With Molly.”

“Why aren’t you with them?”

Well that’s a great question I forgot to prepare a lie for. “Um, I’m not hanging with them tonight.”

Smooth.

“Oh, shit, you didn’t have a fight, did you?”

“No, no way. I’m just… expanding my horizons.” I throw my arms to the side and spin in a circle to illustrate my point, because liars don’t do things like that, and I just know my enthusiasm will totally convince Harriet.

“Oh,” I say, remembering. I tug on Harriet’s arm so she follows me and we go around the side of the house, where we’re alone. I don’t want to talk about Eleanor’s private stuff where anyone else might hear us. “Eleanor and Santi!”

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