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“Take that, bitch!” Mason shouted, and I shuddered.

“This game is awesome, isn’t it?” Danny asked. I could hear the words and feel the rumble in his chest as he spoke them.

“Yeah!” I made myself say. He smelled like aftershave or cologne, I didn’t know which, but I knew the longer I waited the more I’d smell like him when it was over.

I threw myself into the other world before I could lose my nerve.

His phone glowed. I could sense it through him, all the data it sent and captured, blossoming and retracting, a perpetual motion machine of green light. I tried to reach for it, sending my right hand back, inadvertently stroking his hip.

“Yeah, no,” I felt myself jostled and woke up. Sarah was looking at me with concern, and it was her shoe I’d felt nudge me as she’d spoken—and Danny’s hand was on my thigh, I could feel the heat and weight of it through my mini—which seemed to be getting shorter by the minute. I squirmed, and then realized that probably wasn’t helping things.

Goddammit.

I’d been close. I think. And now he wastouchingme and I—I jumped off of his lap. I couldn’t do it. I thought I could, butI couldn’t—and Sarah nodded, uncoiling herself from Ryan and standing up. She bent over to pull the backs of her sandals back on.

“Are you going?” I asked in a high pitched voice as I saw Ryan stand.

“Yeah. My folks want me back by midnight.”

“It’s only ten.”

“Uh, yeah—we’re gonna do some other things on the way,” she said, flushing as she stood.

“Grocery shopping,” Ryan said with a smirk, and some of the other guys laughed.

She leaned in to hug me good-bye. “You okay here?” she asked seriously. “You haven’t had too much to drink?”

“I’m fine,” I lied.

“Don’t do anything stupid, okay?” she said, so low I almost couldn’t hear.

“I won’t.”

“Good.” She beamed at me and gave me a prom queen wave on her way down the stair.

I was abandoned. And the whole reason I was here was currently sitting alone on the couch. Did I dare sit back down? With all the nerves I had in my stomach, I suddenly realized why everyone drank.

“You work at that burger joint, right? The one that caught on fire?” Danny asked.

“Yeah.” Because I could make things catch on fire! Yeah, if I got into trouble, I could just burn Liam’s whole house down!Ugh.

Danny looked me up and down. “This is why sophomores shouldn’t come to senior parties. You all think you can hold your beer, but you can’t.”

This was my opening. If I wanted to take it.

“Can too,” I said, dropping into the spot Ryan had vacated. Danny gave me a slow smile, like he was a coyote spotting a loose yippy house-dog.

“Sure you can,” he agreed, handing me the beer I’d gotten him. “Prove it.”

I took it and brought it to my lips, mimed a sip, and then handed it back.

“Oh come on, sophomore. You can do better than that.”

I licked the beer taste off my lips in what I hoped was an enticing way. “I know I can,” I said and gave him a shy smile over teeth grit tight.

I opened myself up to the other world again and was surrounded. It was now or never, do or die. His phone glowed green and—I slumped against him in an intoxicated fashion. “Sorry,” I apologized, but didn’t move at all and my hand wriggled behind him and I felt him stiffen in surprise, him not in control and wondering what I was doing. My fingers grazed the edge of his phone and—everything raced in.

It was clearly his phone—everything about it was his—all the pictures had him in them—baseballs, motorcycles, cars, groups of teammates eating, drinking, laughing—where was Lacey?Why wasn’t she—wasn’t he MysteriousAzzho1e?