VIOLET
153 days till graduation
Saturday night. Amanda Monk's house.
I walk there because it's only three blocks away. Amanda says it will just be us and Ashley Dunston and Shelby Padgett because Amanda's not talking to Suze right now. Again. Amanda used to be one of my closest friends, but ever since April, I've drifted away from her. Since I quit cheering, we don't have much in common. I wonder if we ever did.
I made the mistake of mentioning the whole sleepover thing to my parents, which is why I'm going. "Amanda is making an effort, and you should too, Violet. You can't use your sister's death as an excuse forever. You've got to get back to living." I'm not ready doesn't work on my mom and dad anymore.
As I cut across the Wyatts' yard and turn the corner, I hear the party. Amanda's house is lit up like Christmas. People are hanging out the windows. They are standing on the lawn. Amanda's father owns a chain of liquor stores, which is one of the reasons she's popular. That and the fact that she puts out.
I wait on the street, my bag across my shoulder, pillow under my arm. I feel like a sixth grader. Like a goody-good. Eleanor would laugh at me and push me up the walk. She'd already be inside. I get mad at her just picturing it.
I make myself go in. Joe Wyatt hands me something in a red plastic cup. "Beer's in the basement," he shouts. Roamer has taken over the kitchen with random other baseball players and football players.
"Did you score?" Roamer asks Troy Satterfield.
"No, man."
"Did you even kiss her?"
"No."
"Did you get any ass?"
"Yeah, but I think that was by mistake."
They laugh, including Troy. Everyone is talking too loud.
I make my way to the basement. Amanda and Suze Haines, best friends again, are lounging on a couch. I don't see Ashley or Shelby anywhere, but fifteen or twenty guys are sprawled on the floor playing a drinking game. Girls are dancing all around them, including the three Brianas and Brenda Shank-Kravitz, who is friends with Theodore Finch. Couples are making out.
Amanda waves her beer at me. "Oh my God, we need to fix your hair." She is talking about the bangs I gave myself. "And why are you still wearing those glasses? I get wanting to remember your sister, but didn't she have, like, a cute sweater you could wear instead?"
I set my cup down. I'm still carrying my pillow. I say, "My stomach's bugging me. I think I'm going home."
Suze turns her big blue eyes on me. "Is it true you pulled Theodore Finch off a ledge?" (She was "Suzie" until ninth grade, when she dropped the i. It's now pronounced "Sooze.")
"Yes." Please, God, I want that whole day to just go away.
Amanda looks at Suze. "I told you it was true." She looks at me and rolls her eyes. "That's just the kind of thing he does. I've known him since, like, kindergarten, and he's only gotten weirder."
Suze takes a drink. "I know him even better than that." Her voice goes slutty. Amanda slaps her arm and Suze slaps her back. When they're done, Suze says to me, "We hooked up sophomore year. He may be weird, but I'll say this for him, that's one guy who knows what he's doing." Her voice goes sluttier. "Unlike most of these boring-ass boys around here." A couple of those boring-ass boys yell from the floor: "Why don't you come and try this on for size, bitch?" Amanda slaps Suze again. And on they go.
