Under the Same Stars(37)

But Marco excused himself to go to the bathroom once the song ended, and as soon as he disappeared, I heard Shelly call: “Derek, over here!”

The guy in a PENN STATE muscle tee weaved his way toward us; his blond hair was plastered to his forehead from sweat, but he was cute. Warm brown eyes and dimples in both cheeks. “Hey, Shelly,” he said, beer in hand. “What’s up?”

Shelly introduced me, and Derek drained his drink so he could ask me to dance. “Stay away from Marco,” Shelly hissed in my ear before I took Derek’s hand.

Huh? I thought, blinking to make sure this wasn’t a dream—or a nightmare. This night was becoming so twisted; the field hockey girls had scattered, and now, Shelly was telling me to back off from Marco? Marco? “Shelly, no,” I started. “Marco and I, we’re—”

Her next words were like knives. “Fuck off, Madeline. Fuck the hell off.”

Derek overheard us. “Yikes,” he said, then slipped his arms around my waist as if to hold me back from Shelly. “I know we’re in TI, but there’s no need for a cat fight, ladies.”

“Stay out of it, Derek,” Shelly grumbled.

“Gladly!” he chirped, then leaned down and whispered, “Do you still wanna dance?”

By way of an answer, I shook and shimmied myself out of his arms so I could take his hand and tug him deeper into the haze of people.

Maybe Marco would ask where I’d gone; maybe he wouldn’t. But I didn’t want to be anywhere near Shelly while they figured out their shitty situationship—or, even better, their “shituationship.”

We’ll find each other later, I assured myself. I’ll find the others later.

I ignored the prickling at the back of my neck, telling me that I should find them now. Instead, I closed my eyes, felt my heart flicker at Derek’s warm hands on my hips, and started to dance.

***

Please pick up, I thought, shivering in the chilly night air. Tiger Inn’s tropical weather had worn off entirely. Please pick up, please pick up, please—

“Hello?” Austin said groggily. “Mads?”

At the sound of his voice, hot and heavy tears spilled down my cheeks. “Austin,” I croaked. “Austin, hey. I need to talk to you. I know it’s really late, but…” I swallowed, then repeated, “I know it’s really late.”

“Really late?” My brother laughed softly, still half asleep. “Try almost two a.m.” He yawned. “Just be quiet, okay? Katie’s a light sleeper.”

“Okay,” I agreed, but then did the complete opposite of staying quiet. I openly started sobbing. Sobbing in my stupid excuse for a shirt and drenched in sweat and Unicorn Snot and wearing enough eye makeup that it was probably running in rivulets down my face right about now.

This girl, passersby would think, is having a night.

I could tell Austin’s spine straightened from the sound of his voice. “Mads, what’s going on? Where are you? Princeton, right? This is your Princeton weekend?”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see, and then word-vomited up the whole night. “The field hockey girls totally ditched me, and Shelly won’t answer my calls or texts,” I said over the lump in my throat. “And I can’t go back to her room…”

“You have to go back to her room,” Austin said firmly. “Right now.”

“But she hates me!” I wailed at the same time a muffled voice went, “Austin, is everything alright?”

“Not really,” he told Katie. Freaking Katie. “Mads is at Princeton…”

“Oh my god,” I heard her groan, loud and clear, after he recapped my recap. “Are you kidding me? She didn’t call your parents?”

My blood burned. I wanted to call my brother, I thought. I wanted to call my best friend, the person I can always count on for help.

I doubted I would ever say that about Katie.

Whatever Austin said was hushed, definitely drowned out by him pressing his phone against his chest.

And then, a beat later, Katie’s voice came over the line: “Where exactly are you?”

“Wawa,” I answered. “I didn’t know where to go after leaving the party, but I knew Wawa would be open—”

“Okay,” she cut me off. “Here’s Austin.”

“Do you have your pepper spray?” he asked.

“No,” I said, goose bumps creeping up my arms. “I dropped it at the party.” My voice quavered. “I, um, used it at the party—”

“What?!” Austin and Katie both shouted.

I was, it appeared, on speakerphone.

“I was dancing with this guy,” I explained. “It was fun at first…” I remembered how good Derek’s hands felt on me, how his warm breath tickled the tip of my ear. My body was humming, a sensation that made it easy to ignore his slurred words or running his hands over places I didn’t quite want them. “But then things took a turn when he told me he hoped I’d be his number three.”

“He didn’t,” Austin ground out as Katie said, “What does that mean?”

“Three girls in one night.” I couldn’t help but blubber again. “You kiss one, kiss another, and then take the third home.”