Page 39 of I Hear You

Taylor reaches across the empty space and puts her hand on my knee.

“Mads. Babe. We’re sorry for laughing, but I don’t think you saw what you think you saw. Yes, Jackie and Henry dated, but he never had real feelings for her. She was just filling a void, and there is no way he would ever get back with her.”

I want to believe her, but I know what I saw. Before I can argue, Caleb magically appears again.

“So, you gonna be my Beirut partner, Madison?”

I turn to look at him.

“I’m sorry, you’re what?”

“Beirut, you have played it before, right?”

I stare at him, waiting for him to take the hint and explain what the hell he’s talking about.

“Beirut,” he says again, pointing to the beer pong table.

“You mean beer pong?”

Caleb laughs, it’s loud and obnoxious. Nothing like Henry’s throaty, sexy laugh.

“Where did you say you were from again?” Caleb asks.

I didn’t, I think. You’re just such an idiot you probably don’t even realize you haven’t asked me any personal questions.

“California.” I say, my tone flat.

“Well Cali girl, would you want to be mybeer pongpartner?”

I see Henry coming out into the back yard behind Caleb, Jackie on his heels. Caleb’s still holding the bottle of whiskey from earlier. I take it from his hand and start chugging. I wipe my mouth when I’m done and hand him back the bottle. The warm, spicy liquid nearly threatens to come back up, but I force it down. Why the hell would anyone willingly drink this shit? It tastes like warm piss mixed with battery acid. I force a flirtatious smile on my face.

“Sounds fun. Lead the way.”

He grabs me by the hand and leads me over to the beer pong table.

“Me and my Cali girl Madison have next game,” he says. Louder than is probably necessary.

By game two, I’m definitely feeling the whiskey I drank earlier. But what I’m not feeling as much is the anger I felt when I got those texts from my mom and the jealousy I felt when I saw Jackie and Henry making out. Okay, maybe the last part is a lie.

We end up playing on the side of the table that faced Taylor and Jesse, who resumed making out as soon as I left, but they stopped when Henry came back. No surprise, Jackie’s with him. I try my hardest not to keep looking over there, but I’m not doing a great job. For someone who's never played beer pong, sorry–Beirut, as they call it here–I’m surprisingly good at this game. Every time I make it in a cup, everyone around me cheers and gets excited and Caleb takes every opportunity to touch me. High-fiving me, hugging me, even picking me up and spinning me around when I make the last cup to win our second game.

When he puts my feet back on the ground, I can feel my phone buzzing in my purse sitting against my hip. I pull it out to check it while Caleb sets our cups back up in the starting position. It’s a text from Taylor checking on me.

Taylor: Blink rapidly if you need me to rescue you. Lol.

Me: I’m good for now, but thank you!

Taylor: Anytime babe.

Before I put my phone away, my thumb accidentally hits an app andthatemail account opens on the screen. An old email from Ender is staring me in the face.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Date: May 12 07:42:43 CST

Subject: Mads is Rad - A poem

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