“Quit that!”
Koala leaned forward in the rolling chair next to the door, using his heels to scoot closer to the bed where Fiona and I sat. The wheels on the chair erased the vacuum lines in the carpet.
We accepted cups from Viet, filled nearly to the top with brown liquid and ice cubes.
“What’s in this?” I sniffed at the rim.
Fiona took a tiny sip, and then another. “It’s not bad,” she said.
Koala edged closer, watching her lick her lips. I pretended to sip from my own cup.
“Bo-rinnnnnggggg,” Johnny said. “Down that shit,” he cried. “One shot!” He drank from his cup, tilting the entire contents down his throat. His Adam’s apple jumped each time he swallowed. Ice cubes fell on his face, a wet glaze on his nose and under his eyes. He jerked around and shook himself, invigorated. “One shot,” he chanted, pumping alternating fists in the air. “One shot, one shot!”
“Come on, Fiona.” Koala smiled at me. He held his cup out. “You got this, girl.”
“I’m not Fiona,” I said.
“Dumbass,” Viet said. “That’s Jane.”
“Can we drink yet?” Koala raised the cup to his mouth.
“You think Sung’s coming soon?” Fiona asked.
“Sung?” Koala wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Fuck that guy.” Viet and Johnny broke out laughing. “That fool owes me twenty bones.”
“He owes me forty,” Johnny added. His eyes tilted toward the ceiling. “No, wait. I owe him forty—”
“Why’s my dude always talking about, ‘I got three jobs.’？” Koala used a whining voice to imitate Sung. “？‘I’m working graveyard this weekend, I gotta put in hours at the grocery store,’？” he added. “And Sung is still the brokest motherfucker I know?” The guys laughed again. He slid his eyes toward Fiona. “The girlies like him though.”
“Looking like one of those K-pop boy bands,” Viet said. “Homie’s about to get a perm next.”
“Does he have a girlfriend?” Fiona asked.
“Who’s asking?” said Koala. This made Viet and Johnny roar.
“Hey,” I said to Fiona in a low voice. “Slow down with that.” I nodded toward her cup, which was half-empty.
She smiled but shot me a look that meant I was being a buzzkill.
“Remember our sign?” I held up two fingers and wiggled them in the air, down by my lap.
She turned away from me and took another sip from her cup. “So where do you guys go to school?”
“School?” said Koala. “We don’t do that.”
“We got bigger dreams,” Johnny added. Then he repeated himself, fading out like an echo: “Bigger dreams . . . dreams . . . dreams . . .”
“Says the genius who failed his GED,” Viet said, shaking his head again.
“But see, I only failed it twice,” Johnny explained. “Third time’s the charm, though.”
“I’m taking a couple business classes at LBCC,” Viet said. “What you ladies study?”
“I’m undeclared,” Fiona said. “But I’ll probably do political science, pre-law.”
How did she know those words?
Viet looked at me expectantly.
“Um—writing?” It was the first thing that popped into my head.
“That’s a major?” he said. “I hate writing.”
“Me and Koala are starting a business. You’ll be seeing us up in Forbes in a few years.” Johnny began shadowboxing, bouncing on his toes, throwing hooks and jabs in the air. “Right, Koala Bear? Tell ’em about it.”
“It’s a secret,” Koala said. He held up a finger to his lips. “If I tell you I’ll have to kill you.”
“And don’t worry, we’ll do it nice and slow,” Johnny said. His face broke into a maniacal grin. “First I’ll tie you up with rope. Then I’ll use the pliers.” He fixed his gaze on me. “You got nice teeth—you had braces, huh?”
“Shut up, asshole,” Koala said. “He’s just messing around.”
“You still wear retainers at night?” Johnny said.
“We’re not scared.” Fiona nudged me with her elbow. “Right, Jane?”
I glanced over and saw that her cup was empty.
“I’ve never had braces before,” I said evenly. “These are just my teeth.”