Forever for a Year(27)

“I had soccer practice,” I said.

“I don’t care!” he said.

Jake said, “Girls shouldn’t play sports!” And he laughed, and Henry laughed too, and I realized that even if Henry was the coolest person in the world and the only boy who would ever like me, I’d still rather be alone and a geek.

“We have to go,” I said, and tried to step by him.

“I think you owe me a kiss. We lost because you didn’t show up.”

“She doesn’t owe you anything,” Kendra said.

“Who do you think you are, new girl?” Henry said.

“She’s my best friend,” I said, and I didn’t mean to say “best,” but maybe I did.

Then Jake said, “What happened to Peggy? You get jealous because she’s having sex with Carl Zerrela?”

“She is not!” I yelled, and hit him, even though I’d never hit anyone.

Henry didn’t say anything, but his face made me so sick to my stomach—he knew something, something about Peggy—so I pushed by him, holding tightly on to Kendra. We got to the stairs, and there was Trevor, and he smiled at me, I think, but I was too worried about Peggy so I said, “I have to go check on Peggy,” and then …

Trevor said, “I’ll help you,” which was weird, but then I thought, well, obviously he wants to help because then he gets to see Peggy.

I let go of Kendra’s hand as I ran up the stairs, but she ran just as fast, and Trevor was right behind both of us, and I turned and flung open Peggy’s bedroom door and there on the bed was Wanda with a junior boy. The boy’s shirt was off and Wanda only had on her underwear and bra. And Peggy was on the floor with the same junior that she had been dancing with. He had pulled off her dress strap so that her right boob was hanging out and her skirt was hiked up to her belly button. Peggy was so pale, and her makeup was smeared over her face like a clown.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

The junior boy on the floor said, “Get out of here!”

“Peggy!” I screamed, and got down on my knees next to her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” she yelled, swatting me away, but I could see in her eyes—because we had been friends forever—that she wasn’t fine.

“Get out of here!” the junior boy said again. He stood up and tried to grab me, but Trevor pulled him away from me. Trevor was taller than he was, and the junior boy wasn’t quite as brave anymore.

“Carrie?” Peggy said. “I don’t…” And then she threw up on her carpet. It was brown, with tiny chunks of pizza she had eaten, but mostly hot and liquid.

“Fucking gross!” the boy said, grabbed his shirt and left. Wanda and the boy she was with also picked up their clothes and disappeared. I picked up Peggy, or tried to. Kendra helped, and we took her to the bathroom. She was moaning, then she threw up again, and started crying, telling me she was sorry and how much she loved me. But then she went silent, like she was sleeping with her eyes open, and she looked so sick and scared. We wet a towel and cleaned her face, then wet another and put it against her forehead. Then I laid her down on the bathroom floor and Peggy fell asleep.

“Do you think she’s going to be okay?” I asked. Kendra shrugged. I was scared. I called my mom, who answered, and I was so happy my mom was a nurse even though sometimes I hated how much she worked. I told her what happened to Peggy. I was worried she was going to yell at me for being at a party with alcohol, but my mom actually never yells, and she was calm and had me check Peggy’s breathing and pulse and eventually she said Peggy would be fine. She just needed to sleep.

So Kendra and I helped Peggy back to her room, and put sweatpants and a sweatshirt on her, and turned off the light. Kendra whispered, “My mom’s here to pick me up. Do you want a ride?”

I said, “I think I should stay a little while longer.”

Kendra said, smiling, “I think you should talk to Trevor.” I had—honestly!—forgotten about him after Peggy started throwing up. Kendra and I hugged, she left, and I watched Peggy sleep for a long time, maybe ten minutes, before I thought she was fine and maybe I should see if Trevor was still at the party.

So I closed Peggy’s door behind me and put up a Post-it note that said KEEP OUT so no boys would go in there, and walked back downstairs. It was still so crowded, and I thought, even if Trevor was here, I would never find him, and he probably went home anyway and that’s when I heard a police siren, saw the spinning red lights, and someone yelled, “COPS!”

And whoooosh, all the gazillion people started running toward the doors at once, and jumping out the windows, and people screamed from getting smushed, and something crashed. Luckily, I was on the stairs, and so I just stepped backward and watched everyone flee as if the house were on fire. I didn’t run because, well, I thought someone shouldn’t.

By the time two police officers stepped through the front door, I was the only person there.

“You live here?” one of policemen asked.

“No,” I said. “This is the Darrys’ house.”

“Where are the parents?”

“On vacation in Wisconsin.”

“What’s going on?” a voiced yelled, stumbling out from the basement. It was Katherine. She was drunk, and angrier than usual. Which is a lot. The senior boy that had grabbed her ass before was behind her, shirt off, but when he saw the cops he ran out the back door even though he didn’t have shoes on.