Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(30)

“Alice!” Ken got up from the picnic table. His hair flowed over his shoulders like normal. He hadn’t bothered to trim his beard in days. He had on a Zeppelin T-shirt and jeans.

“Are you dressed as yourself?” she asked, offended. The nerve of him, coming to a costume party without making any effort.

“It’s okay.” Terry trying to smooth it over, hearing that Alice was serious. It was strange and nice, being understood without having to explain.

“Oh no,” he said. “I’m supposed to be a narc.”

She squinted. “So you’re a narc in real life, then?”

“No.” Ken laughed, but she didn’t see why that was funny.

“You’re lazy is what you are,” she said.

But she moved past him when she saw Gloria rise from the table and throw out her arms for inspection.

“Now that is a costume!” Alice said, doing a full circle to admire Gloria’s note-perfect Catwoman. The Eartha Kitt version with a slinky, glittery black jumpsuit and a necklace with big gold circles, a belt to match. She had on the cat’s-eye mask and ears and everything.

“Back at you,” Gloria said, smiling at Alice.

Andrew came out to join them. “I hated how Lady Bird threw her under the bus.”

“All she did was speak her mind about the war,” Gloria agreed.

Alice nodded to Andrew. “I like you.”

Andrew handed her the beer can she didn’t want and clinked his against it. “I have a feeling you’re going to be like the little sister I never wanted.”

“No,” Alice said. “Not another brother! That’s the last thing I need.”

Terry put in, “Don’t forget, he has a Barracuda.”

Alice knew when she was beat. “I suppose I can have one more honorary brother.”

She sat down at the picnic table and Ken subtly reached over and slid away her drink. Surprised, she looked over to see his eyebrows raised in question. “Thanks,” she said.

“I’ll get you some water in a bit.”

She forgave him for not wearing a costume.

Terry and Andrew had to go back inside to play hosts, and Alice enjoyed being in the backyard with the only people she knew at the party. As long as she managed not to think about how they knew each other, it was fine.

Alice was surprised that Gloria did accept some kind of drink from Terry when she came back out with a real glass and presented it to her. “I’d never make you drink out of plastic, Catwoman.”

“Cheers,” Gloria said, taking it.

Terry clinked her beer to the glass before they each drank.

Other than a couple making out in the corner of the yard, their group was alone out here. Even Andrew was inside. Alice had work early the next day, and had planned to enjoy dressing up but leave early. Now she wanted to stay put as long as possible. Party inertia.

“Tell me your favorite thing about biology,” Alice said to Gloria. “What made you study it?”

“Ooh, I want to hear this, too,” Terry said, sitting down beside Ken. He’d been remarkably quiet all evening.

“You probably expect me to say the cell or the miracle of life.” Gloria folded her hands together on the table.

“I expect you to say comic books,” Terry said with a grin.

“There are a lot of scientists in those,” Gloria said, “but they’re usually villains.”

“And you are no villain,” Alice declared. It was obvious, but she said it anyway.

“Thank you,” Gloria said. “Anyway, biology is how we all—and everything around us—works. So that was it at first, but not anymore.”

“Well, what is it?” Terry asked.

“This might sound silly,” Gloria said.

“Never.” Alice meant it with her whole heart.

“You can trust the people at this table,” Ken said.

“All right.” But Gloria studied the night sky as she answered like she didn’t quite believe it. “People working together. Scientific progress can only happen when people use the same standards and share their findings. Personal differences don’t matter, when it’s working right. Only differences in the findings.”

Alice wanted to swoon. “That’s beautiful.”

Gloria smiled.

Andrew wandered back out, steps meandering, and plopped down beside Alice. “What are you talking about?”

“The magic of science.” Gloria didn’t give the declaration the grandeur it deserved, but Alice allowed it. “Good science, at least.”

The making-out couple had disappeared sometime in the past few minutes, and Alice realized there wasn’t music inside anymore. Here she sat with the only people who might understand, and there was no driver to eavesdrop. No lab techs or doctors with machines she wanted to destroy and never repair.

She hadn’t thought to say anything tonight. But, here, now, she could risk it.

“Do any of you see the monsters?”

The words slipped from her mouth softly enough for the night to swallow them. For a second, it seemed like maybe none of the others had heard.

Terry shifted in her seat to fully face Alice. “The monsters?”

Alice could back away from what she’d said. Keep the rest of it inside. Instead she kept talking.