How to Be Brave(37)

“Yeah,” I say. “I was in class with you. I sat right next to Kevin, in the back.”

“Oh. Yeah. You were, I guess, huh?” Nope. She doesn’t remember at all.

But Avery still smiles. And it’s so freaking weird because it looks genuine. Or drunk. I’m not sure. “So, tell everyone what happened!”

“What?”

“You were there. Tell the people the story!”

Everyone’s looking at me, waiting to hear how Kevin Lee almost ended my life.

Daniel nudges me. “Tell us!”

Okay.

I take a sip.

“So this one day, Linberg has to go to the bathroom or something, and she leaves us all in the room by ourselves. Well, needless to say, this is a very bad idea.

“Kevin Lee decides he’s going to climb up on a desk to draw some faces in the corner of the room, I guess to give Linberg something to look at while she stares over our heads talking about vectors and shit.

“So first, he stands up on the desk, but he can’t reach. Then, he piles up one desk upside down on top of the other and starts balancing on the wire basket that, you know, sits under the seat of the chair.”

Everyone’s murmuring and laughing and shaking their heads.

“He’s drawing this face in the corner of the room, balancing and drawing. Now, mind you, the window is wide open. Third floor, man. Top of the building.

“So of course, he’s drawing and drawing—a little stick figure with hair and glasses, if I remember correctly. And then he slips—slips!—and the desk flies—”

Evelyn screams. “What happened?!”

“He almost fell out the window!”

“What? No way!” Evelyn and Gregg and Liss and Daniel and Chloe and everyone are all laughing and drinking.

I continue. “There I am, his black Converse teetering on the edge of the metal base of the desk. He tumbled down, his ponytail swinging, his arms flailing, toward me. I ducked because I thought he was going to land on me. And he almost did, except that somehow, at the very last moment, I moved—my body and desk together as one entity—away from his trajectory. Maybe I’d learned something of value in that class, after all. Anyway, he landed flat on the ground, right on his back. It’s a wonder he didn’t die.”

“Oh, and the best part,” Avery screams, her drink sloshing around in her glass, nearly splashing out. “Where did the desk go?”

Everyone except for Evelyn and me chimes in: “Out the window!”

Avery cheers: “Yes! A f*cking desk flew out the f*cking third-story window—and no one noticed!”

And there it is. Avery and I are best buds, drinking and laughing and telling grand old stories about our old high school days together. This Jungle Juice is awesome stuff.

“Wait—so how did Linberg not notice this?” Daniel asks. “I never heard this part of the story.”

I finish the story. “So Linberg comes back, and Kevin’s flat on the ground, and a desk is missing, and we’re all laughing and screaming—and so, what does Linberg do? She turns on her overhead projector, picks up her pen, and continues her lecture about SOACAHTOA. That’s it. She doesn’t ask, doesn’t notice. Just goes back to inverse functions or whatever shit she’s trying to teach us.”

“You’re hilarious, Georgia,” Avery says to me. “The way you tell a story. I never knew how funny you are.”

“Yeah, well…” I don’t even know what to say.

“So, Georgia…” Avery leans in. “Tell us about the list—your bucket list or whatever. What’s on it?”

“Wait, what?” I freeze. “How do you know about that?”

“Evelyn and Liss told us about it before you got here. It sounds really awesome.”

I look at Liss and then Evelyn. “You guys told her?”

“They told all of us!” Avery says. “Tell us more, though. They wouldn’t tell us what’s on it.”

Liss takes a sheepish sip from her drink.

I want to kill them both. They told Avery and Chloe and all these other strangers about my list. They told Daniel about my list.

“I always wanted to make a bucket list,” Chloe says. “Like stay up all night and kiss in front of a sunrise. It’s so romantic.”

“Is that on there, Georgia?” Avery says. “Who do you want to kiss?”

And she laughs when she says this. It’s a cold laugh, and right after, she gives Daniel a pointed look. We’re not best buds anymore. It’s like we’re twelve again, and she’s teasing me. I can feel it.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say. “It’s personal.”

Daniel bumps his elbow into my arm. “You don’t have to. I just think it’s cool that you’re doing something like that.”

“Whatever.” Avery shrugs. “I was just curious, is all.”

And then, that’s it. End of story. End of my short-lived glory as life of the party. They turn the focus to their upcoming trip to Belize. Daniel and Liss are leaving in one week. Daniel fills the awkward space between Liss and me with facts about Belize. The horrid humidity. The lush, tropical rain forests. The amazing barrier reefs. Their efforts in marine conservation.