Liars and Losers Like Us(57)

“Justin wouldn’t be my first. I didn’t sleep with Todd because, well …”

“Spit it out Molls. If you expect me to give you one of these, I need to know that you’re of sound mind and you won’t regret it.”

“It’s not going to make sense to you, but I’m okay with sex for fun, but when I care about someone, it becomes a bigger deal. I didn’t have sex with Todd because I loved him and I wanted to wait until we’re married.”

“Marrying Todd. That’s sad.” I hand her a condom like it’s a piece of gum. “There you go. Fornicate in peace.”

“It’s not sad. It’s reality. As far as Justin goes, if you look at someone with lust in your heart, you’ve already committed that sin. Like, you’ve already done it, so I might as well, right? So, let’s have fun.” She leans over and flips my hair off my shoulder, then tucks the condom in her pocket. Molly’s smile is big and bright white. As late as it is, she still looks fresh off the page of Cosmo selling lip gloss.

“Yeah, sorry. Let’s have fun.” I smile big, like my face could be on the page after Molly’s. Maybe selling tampons. I laugh and slide one of the condoms into my pocket too.

“Woo hoo!” She raises her hand to give me a high five.

“Woo hoo!” We miss, then take turns emptying the last few sips out of the wine bottle.

****

“What took you so long up there—what’s going on upstairs?” Sean asks.

“Lemme put it this way,” I say. “If you look up ‘TMI’ in the dictionary, you’re not gonna see a picture. You’ll hear a highly inappropriate sound bite. And that, my friend, is what’s going on upstairs.” I start laughing like crazy. Molly grips my shoulder before dropping to the floor in giggles.

“And lemme tell you,” Molly adds. “It wasn’t pretty. Not that I saw anything because hey, maybe …” Molly tries to stop laughing, “Maybe, ha—maybe, they, maybe they were just exercising.”

“Cross-fit or yoga is my guess,” Justin says, putting down the game controller.

“Want to take a walk?” Sean asks me.

“I could watch you guys play video games all night long but sure, I can walk.”

Justin jumps up. “Holy shit! I just realized I have a six-pack of HotShotz in my car. Hell yes.”

“Let’s go get it,” says Molly. She winks at me. “We’ll meet you guys back here later.”

Sean and I step outside of the basement’s sliding glass doors. We tread up the small hill to where the dock and main level of the house is.

“Looks like Kyle made Kallie pick up all traces of alcohol.” We survey the patio. All signs of the beer can and clear plastic cup debris from earlier have been erased. “Big change,” says Sean. Just a few hours ago and this place looked like a bomb went off.”

“I know, right? I’m kind of glad Kyle came. It was getting …”

“Bananas?” We exchange a smile, then he says, “I’m glad Kyle came and we got to hang out in that closet. And I’m glad we didn’t get caught, so we can hang out more. Ya know?”

“Yeah.”

We sit on the dock for a while, laughing about the party. How funny it was to see Brian outside of school, Molly too. I tell Sean I’m surprised; everyone’s pretty nice and fun. I’m about to joke how drinking might actually be a good thing for Molly when we hear her and Justin traipsing and laughing their way back from getting the alcohol. We turn around and Justin’s arm is wrapped around her shoulder. Molly stumbles over something—probably her own foot—and then she’s literally rolling down the hill. Like a hot dog in jeans and a pink sweater on a conveyor belt. I’m not going to lie: It’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.

“Is somebody gonna catch her? She’s rolling.” Sean laughs.

“Like a hot dog.” I laugh.

Justin does a running skid down the hill and the second he reaches her, she pukes.

“I’m not on puke patrol tonight. Let’s go,” I whisper to Sean, grabbing his wrist. We run into the woods, laughing in whispers and squeezing each other’s hands. I lead him through the edge of the woods and onto a path.

“Where are you taking me?” he asks.

“The Point. It’s where the Vates’ land ends and Lake Crystal Woods meets Lake Belmont. It’s been me and Kal’s spot since we were twelve. It’s the place where all the magic happens,” I say. “You know, swimming, tanning, maybe doing stuff we don’t want Kallie’s parents to know about.” Smoking, practicing kissing, sharing her brother’s Red Bulls because Kallie’s mom wouldn’t let her have caffeine.

“I didn’t bring swim trunks,” Sean says. “But it sounds like a plan.” We walk along the dirt path, branches and leaves extending from the trees. The smell of lake and mossy spring heat is so heavy it feels like summer. We reach the end of the path and head down the sandy hill that meets the lake. We kick off our shoes and peel our socks off, rolling our jeans to sit in the sand with our ankles and feet dipped in the water.

I break the silence. “This is nice.”

“I like that we can just sit here and not say anything,” Sean says.