The Unconditional Pledge

31 Nick

"Man, I swear half the alcohol sold in this town is consumed by us," I say, picking up an empty tequila bottle by the edge of the pool.

Jay resurfaces in the water, another empty bottle in his hand. "Half the liquor," he corrects, wading over to drop it into the trash bag by my feet. "Wine is for the elderly."

"I like wine," Eric's voice calls out from the upstairs balcony, offended.

Jay gets out of the pool and shakes his hair off, splattering water all over me. "Of course you do, Lanthe," Jay calls back. "You'll drink anything with alcohol in it."

It's Monday afternoon, and all the guys are at Ashton's again. Half of it is customary — if one of us hosts a particularly big party, the rest of us agree to clean up. The other half is some sort of grave acknowledgement to Josh's absence. In all four years of high school together, Josh is the only dude part of our inner circle who's lost the games. It feels strange sitting here without him, but, like Jay said, Josh brought this onto himself. And maybe it's because of everything that happened during the game, or because I feel like I'm finally seeing Josh for who he really is — but it really doesn't feel that different without him here.

"Have you guys started applying to colleges yet?" Chase asks from one of the pool chairs, where he's reclining with his hands behind his head. "My mom's been nagging at me for weeks."

"Yeah," Ashton says, cracking another beer open. "I've been looking at places on the east coast. Courtney is, too." Then he throws a wadded-up paper towel at Chase. "And get off your ass and help us, will you?"

"Courtney, huh?" I ask, grinning. "You guys are that serious already?"

Ashton shrugs. "I don't know, man. I really like her."

I pick up another bottle behind a shrub and toss it into the trash bag, the smile sliding off my face. I've been pushing off the thought of college for months now, and the deadlines are suddenly breathing down my neck. My parents, I know, want me to go to an Ivy League. My dad — like many of the parents here in Fieldbrook — has connections with some of the deans, and I know at least one of them will let my mediocre grades slide. But I don't know where Hannah is going. And the fact that we're finally together, after literal years of liking her, only to face graduation soon, is painful.

"What about you, Jay?" I blurt out, eager to get my mind off the subject.

Jay rubs a towel through his hair. I can just see the blonde roots peeking through the black. "I think I'll stay in California. Maybe one of the UCs."

I nod thoughtfully. The UCs don't sound bad — I don't particularly want to get out of state. "Josh's dream school is UCLA," I say without thinking, recalling the amount of times he's mentioned how he can't wait for the parties and the girls there.

"Mathers?" Chase scoffs. "Yeah, sure. He almost flunked out of biology last year."

I tie up a trash bag and push hair away from my face. It's hot out, and spending the afternoon under the sun has all of us sweating. "Have you guys heard from him?"

Ashton chugs the rest of his drink. "He texted me this morning. Testing how I'm feeling, I think."

"Me too," Kyle says, emerging from the sliding doors. "I haven't replied."

Jay groans suddenly. "Can we not talk about Mathers? He's not part of us anymore. End of story."

He goes to get a beer from the table, leaving the rest of us to glance at each other uncertainly. We haven't spoken about Josh at all since last night, and it's only now that we know his exclusion is final. We finish cleaning up and finally pile into Ashton's living room, exhausted. Jay immediately starts talking.