“Hey, this is so cool,” she said. “Come on in.”
When she shut the door behind him, the noise from the party died off substantially.
“So much better, right? Thank God they paid for good soundproofing when they renovated. Do you want something to drink?”
Auggie was feeling the tequila filter into his bloodstream, hot little tendrils of it, and he nodded. “What do you have?”
“Barry brought up beer. Here, have mine.” She passed him the red cup, and Auggie took it, drank, and pictured Theo wrapped around the blonde. His memory was playing tricks on him; he kept seeing Theo rock into the girl, returning the movement. He kept seeing Theo kiss her neck, even though part of his brain knew Theo had just been trying to talk into her ear.
“Barry?” Auggie said and then took another drink.
“My boyfriend,” Samantha said. “It’s totally not serious. So, like, you’re really here. That’s so cool. Why did you come to Wroxall?”
“Scholarship,” Auggie said. “And they’ve got a great communications program.”
“Not that you need any help,” Samantha said with a giggle. She kept brushing her hair back over her ear. Right now, she was standing at the built-in desk, swaying her hips so that the pink skirt whisked against her thighs. “I didn’t follow you before you messaged me, but you’ve got such a good platform. You’re really funny. That one with the cat in the box is hilarious.”
“Thanks.”
“Seriously. And you’re so cute with your friends.”
“Thanks.”
She was still playing with her hair, but now she drifted across the room, her hips still moving to the muffled beat of the music, the pink skirt still swishing.
“You are so cute,” she said, and now she was close enough for Auggie to smell the sweet, candy-like perfume.
Auggie smiled a cardboard smile. He knew how to sit, how to hold his head, how to hold the beer, how to breathe. Cardboard, all the way through. So fucking cardboard you could stand him up and walk away. Cardboard was what everybody in the whole fucking universe wanted from him.
“Hey, I should have said this earlier,” Auggie said. “But I was wondering if you’d want to be in a video with me.”
Samantha stopped. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you fucking serious?”
Laughing, Auggie nodded.
“Yes, I would love that.”
“Great. But, here’s the thing. I’m kind of, you know, in a slump. Robert was supposed to hook me up, but I didn’t get his number.”
“Yeah, totally, I’ve got it.” She was tapping through her phone. “So, like, what’s best? You know, for being creative. Because I’ve got some Adderall if you want to do that, and I swear it helped me pass Econ.”
“Adderall’s good,” Auggie said.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
She read off the number, and Auggie typed it into the phone.
Sliding a hand onto Auggie’s knee, Samantha said, “And what do you like to do when you party?”
Before Auggie could answer, the door opened, and a massive guy with dark, shaggy hair was standing there, carrying a bottle of Bacardi in one hand and a bottle of Coke in the other.
“What the fuck?” he said.
Snatching her hand away, Samantha said, “Barry, just calm down. Jesus Christ.”
“What the fuck is going on?”
“Nothing,” Auggie said, pushing off from the wall and heading for the door. “Nothing at all.”
“It sure as fuck didn’t look like nothing,” Barry shouted. Then he threw the bottle of Bacardi, and it shattered against the far wall. “Samantha, what the fuck is wrong with you?”
Auggie tried to slide past him.
Instead, Barry grabbed a handful of his t-shirt. Barry was a big guy, with probably six inches and a hundred pounds on Auggie. He smelled like rum and coconut, and Auggie had a vision of this guy beating the shit out of him while drinking a pina colada.
“Were you hooking up with her?” Barry said, yanking him by the shirt and tossing him against the wall. “What app? Tinder?”
Samantha grabbed Barry’s arm. “Barry, you are fucking wasted. What the fuck is wrong with you? We were just talking.”
Spinning toward his girlfriend, Barry said, “Talking with your hand in his crotch. Yeah, I can fucking see you were talking. Hey, you little shit, get back here.”
Auggie sprinted down the stairs. Theo was on the bottommost step, and those strawberry blond eyebrows went up when he saw Auggie.
“What—”
Catching Theo’s arm, Auggie dragged him into the mass of bodies.
“Get the fuck back here!”
Barry had some healthy lungs.
For the moment, the chaos of the party provided cover. Behind Auggie, Barry was still shouting, but the music and the fairy lights and the crowd kept him from catching up. Even through the tequila, though, Auggie knew that the real problem was once they got outside of the Alpha Phi house. Barry would have buddies; guys like Barry always had buddies. Theo had handled one guy easily. He might even be able to handle two. What about five frat bros showing up for the same fight? Worse, once Auggie and Theo were outside, they wouldn’t have a quick means of escape. They’d walked here, and they’d have to walk out of here. Outside, without the crowd, Barry would spot them in an instant. And he and his buddies would have cars. He and his buddies would be able to catch up even if Auggie ran—and Auggie wasn’t even sure Theo could run.
When they got outside, the late September air felt chilly in comparison to the sweltering heat of the party. Theo turned, obviously planning on heading the way they had come, but Auggie grabbed his wrist and pulled him twenty yards in the other direction, following the wall of the Alpha Phi house. A dense line of boxwood ran under the windows. Auggie dropped onto his back, squirmed until his head and shoulders were deep beneath the boxwood, and pulled Theo down on top of him.
“Fuck,” Theo yelped.
“Are you ok?”
Theo nodded, but he was pale, and he had one hand pressed to his knee.
“I’m sorry, Christ, I’m so sorry. Look, we’ve got to sell this. Fast. That asshole wants to beat
