When the professor released the class, Cassie realized she’d been zoning out thinking about Erin for almost ten minutes. Shit.
The next weekend came, and she found a party giving away free jungle juice. She went alone, without Acacia or Parker or anyone, and she didn’t plan on getting wild. But free jungle juice was free jungle juice.
She ended up dancing with Gwen, of all people. Gwen might not have hated Cassie, but they weren’t anything like friends. Back when Cassie was a sophomore, her ambition may have gotten the best of her in a game of capture the flag, and there may have been an explosion as Gwen and her friend neared Cassie’s team’s flag. It had been more smoke and loud noises than anything that would’ve hurt anyone, but it certainly hadn’t endeared Cassie to her then-RA. Yet here they were, at the same party even though Gwen had started at the grad school this fall—getting her master’s in social work, Cassie was pretty sure. Here they were, dancing together, Cassie’s hands wandering a little too much.
When Gwen took Cassie’s hand off her ass and led her outside, Cassie thought she was getting lucky. She did not expect Gwen to dodge her attempt at a kiss.
“Gimme your phone,” Gwen said.
Cassie unlocked it and handed it over, not sure why she wanted it but still hoping they were going to make out.
“Which of your friends has a car and is most likely to be sober on a Friday night?”
“Parker,” Cassie answered without a thought. She was working on a painting due Monday.
Gwen scrolled through Cassie’s contacts. Before Cassie could get her shit together enough to figure out what was happening, Gwen was giving Parker the address to the party and telling her she’d wait outside with Cassie until she arrived.
“What the fuck?” Cassie snapped when Gwen handed back her phone.
Gwen’s gaze was flat, unimpressed. “You obviously need someone to take care of you, and it’s not going to be me.”
Cassie sputtered. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her, hadn’t for a long time. She just wanted to hook up with someone. It didn’t even have to be Gwen; she was just pretty and older and seemed to have her shit together. Cassie refused to think too hard about why she was attracted to that sort of thing right now.
“Fuck you,” she said, turning to go back inside and find someone else to make her night interesting.
Gwen put herself between Cassie and the house.
“Your friend is coming to pick you up.”
Cassie practically growled. “Get out of my way.”
“No.”
Cassie didn’t bother trying to maneuver around her. She considered walking away—heading toward campus on her own—but she was drunk and the idea of Parker chasing her down, catching her on the side of the road, was a lot more humiliating than waiting for her.
Parker thought it was funny and teased her the whole way to campus. At least that saved Cassie from having an obnoxiously sincere heart-to-heart about why she was getting drunk and hitting on older girls. She really didn’t want to talk about it.
Except she must have, because the first weekend in November she talked Acacia into a nostalgic movie night where they watched How to Train Your Dragon, just the two of them. Right before the battle against the Red Death, Cassie paused the movie.
“I have to tell you something.”
Acacia picked the last of the popcorn from the bowl in her lap. “Shoot.”
Cassie sighed. “Kaysh. It’s like. A thing.”
They’d gone through too much vodka for her to better communicate how important this was. Acacia seemed to get it anyway; she set the bowl on the coffee table and turned to sit cross-legged on the couch, devoting her full attention to Cassie.
“What is it?”
Cassie ran her fingers through her hair. “No, you know what, it’s not a big deal, don’t even worry about it.”
“Klein,” Acacia said, and it was a command.
“Okay, but like—” Cassie took another swallow of her vodka tonic. “You can’t tell anyone. Or judge me. Or hate me.”
“Cassie, you know I’m never gonna hate you.”
Cassie did—for the most part. Her mom wasn’t around, and her dad had never been around, and most of her friends had left her for Seth even though he’d cheated, but Kaysh—she was the only one who had always been there. So Cassie knew Acacia wouldn’t hate her, but she also knew that Acacia and Parker were best friends—not Acacia and Cassie–level best friends, but best friends nonetheless. But Cassie needed to tell someone, and it wasn’t like she could tell Parker.