Shuffle, Repeat(63)

Shaun grins at me. “I’m driving.”

“What the hell,” I say, which makes Kaylie squeal again. She sloshes some tequila into the shot glass and hands it to me. “Have you ever done one?”

I glance around at my audience of what I assume are body shot veterans. “Nope.”

“You’re supposed to put it in your cleavage,” Kaylie says in a confidential tone that everyone within twenty feet can hear. “But I didn’t want Bo’s face in my boobs.”

“Generally speaking, I have a face-free boob zone myself.”

“PMGO,” Kaylie says, and I laugh because Darbs’s thing has finally caught on. Kaylie gestures to the crowd. “Who’s it going to be?” I know most of the faces but don’t see anyone I’m particularly dying to lick, so I point at Shaun. Apparently it’s a good choice, because cheering and laughter erupts.

“Make him straight!” says Danny Hollander, and Shaun gives him the finger.

I take the proffered lime wedge from Kaylie and slide it over the back of Shaun’s hand. “I’m pretty sure this won’t make you straight,” I tell him as Kaylie sprinkles salt over the area.

“You’re welcome to try.” Shaun opens his mouth so I can set the wedge between his teeth.

I lick the sour salt from his hand and drink the tequila. It’s way stronger than I imagined, and my face involuntarily squinches up tight, which makes people laugh. I shake my head and lean into Shaun so I can take the lime from his mouth. “Yuck,” I say once the taste is gone from my tongue and people have stopped clapping for my amazing feat.

“Congratulations on losing your body shot virginity,” Shaun says.

“Thanks. Are you straight now?”

“I actually think you might have made me gayer.” Yet another squeal from Kaylie heralds a new group of guests, so with the attention off us, Shaun and I head for the keg. “We can share,” he tells me.

It’s a good call, especially because the tequila is still burning in my throat. As Shaun fills up a plastic cup, the door to the backyard bangs open and a girl totters in backward. It’s obviously Ainsley, because that’s Ainsley’s thick, curly beach-sand hair hanging almost to her waist, and yet it can’t possibly be her, because visible at her waist is a pair of very big, very male hands. They’re groping her quite extensively, and they belong to Theo Nizzola.

I want to think it’s a party game—one I don’t know, like another version of body shots, maybe—but Theo and Ainsley aren’t carrying any alcohol that I can see. Also, they’re so into each other that they can’t even separate their mouths long enough to walk into the house. They’re murmuring between kisses, and as Shaun and I stare, Ainsley takes Theo’s hands away from her waist so she can entwine her fingers with his. She steps into the kitchen, pulling him after her.

Because he’s facing forward—and because Shaun and I are just standing there with our mouths wide open—Theo addresses us first. “What are you looking at?”

We’re saved from answering by Ainsley’s gasp of surprise. “June! You’re here!”

“You invited me.” I hear the chill in my voice. Suddenly, I understand what might have made Oliver punch Itch in the face.

“You said you weren’t coming.” She waves her hands in front of her body, distressed, and her eyes are bigger and greener than usual.

“Shaun convinced me otherwise.” I eye Theo. “I guess I should have alerted you that I changed my mind.”

“No.” Ainsley shakes her head. “Of course you didn’t have to tell me. I’m sorry. I’m surprised, that’s all.”

“I see that.” I turn to Shaun. “Let’s go anywhere else.”

“Wait,” says Ainsley. “Can I talk to you?”

I don’t especially want to listen to Ainsley explain why it’s okay to make out with Oliver’s best friend, so I look at Shaun. I’m hoping he’ll save me, but he only nods and pushes the cup of beer into my hands. “Go ahead.”

I follow Ainsley through the kitchen and the crowded living room and out onto the front porch. It’s not as big as ours, but there’s a porch swing in the corner. I sit on one end and Ainsley plops onto the other. “Theo was going to tell him tonight,” she says. “That was the plan, but then Oliver decided not to come.”

I gesture to the house. “Do you really think everyone here is going to keep it a secret? You’re all over each other.” I don’t add what’s really going through my mind: grossgrossgross.

“We didn’t think it through,” says Ainsley. “We were just going to come to the party like friends, but then we were holding hands and suddenly it seemed silly to keep trying to hide it, you know?”

“I actually don’t know. You could have any boy you want, and you choose the one who’s besticles with Oliver?”

“That’s not why I’m with Theo. I just like him.”

I don’t say anything, because although I cannot remotely understand liking Theo Nizzola, what I do understand is not getting to choose how emotions work.

“I know it’s breaking the bro code. Theo knows it, too. That’s why he’s going to talk to him.” Ainsley leans forward, training her eyes on my face. “Please don’t be mad, June.”