CHAPTER 18: A BRO SHALT NOT USE THE L WORD-5

Squeezed between Austin and Eliza, I tried not to say anything dumb as Hannah drove us to Jeff 's party. Carter had taken shotgun, even though Austin had called it. Instead, Austin, Eliza, and I took turns tapping Carter's shoulder and having him guess who did it. Jeff's Karvotsky's house made the night better. I didn't know where his parents were, but wherever they were, it wasn't there. Which made us start to respect Jeff. Getting your parents to leave your house when they know you're having a party is no easy feat. Jeff had finally stepped into bro-zone. "Wazzup?" Austin shouted into the living room. After one step inside, I already recognized a sea of faces: the entire soccer team had showed, plus a decent number of the juniors and seniors. Jeff greeted us. "We got drinks in the kitchen, games in the basement, and the chill room est ici," he told us. Jeff was the kind of nerd who took French in middle school instead of Spanish. Since he was providing this rager, we let it slide. Jeff pointed to Hannah and Eliza. "Ladies, hats sont là-bas . . ." he pointed to a bin next to the couch filled with paper pointed party hats. "Oooooh." I hip-checked Eliza as she reluctantly went over to it. All small towns have traditions, and the tradition for the Cassidy High School house parties was this: everyone who wasn't explicitly invited had to wear a party hat. And then if you were caught as a crasher and you weren't wearing your hat . . . you had to drink a mixture of whatever the host wanted. "What are the games?" I asked. "T or D, something with pong." I searched for Carter, my built-in beer/water-pong partner—the beverage didn't matter, we were in it to win it—but he was already beelining for the kitchen. "Yo, Carter!" I shouted. "You in?" He looked between me and Hannah, who was securing her pink party hat, and shrugged. Forget it. I turned to the girl next to me, who had her hands in her pockets, fidgeting. "Want to come downstairs?" I asked. Eliza's sparkly gold hat nicely complemented her blond hair. "These hats look stupid," she said. "Also, I don't drink anymore. Not since Carter's party." "Understood, and you look amazing." My heart surged. For some reason, Eliza straight-up telling me she was not about the peer-pressure, partying life made her that much more attractive. Probably because I was the exact opposite of being a role model. Hey, maybe opposites do attract. The basement's lights were off. Instead, there was a green strobe that flashed to Jeff's rap music. Huddled together were even more of my teammates, fellow students, and Austin's new favorite topic: Madison Hayes. "Hey, handsome." She smiled, wearing a leopard-print party hat. I wondered if she'd brought it herself. She nodded to Eliza, then leaned in to whisper in my ear, "Happy to see things are working out. Too bad I'm working on our deal by myself." "You're kidding, right?" Austin was damn near crazy about her. She stalked off anyway. "She's the worst," said Eliza. "Sorry, I know you're friends. She gets under my skin." "Never said we were friends," I replied. "Gross." I stretched, able to lay my palms flat against the bumpy ceiling. "How do you think I felt about you hanging out with Daley?" "Touché." On the periphery of the room, freshmen finished their game of pong. They weren't doing too well, and the crowd gathered around us was probably somewhat relieved when I stood up to the plate. "Who's next?" I asked. "Anyone who thinks they can match this squad?" I patted Eliza's party hat. "You bet," came Austin's voice. He had his arm wound around Madison and pulled her over. She pouted, clacking her nails against the ping-pong table. I wondered if she was truly angry that I hadn't helped her with Carter more. Though to be fair, she'd barely helped me with Eliza. She'd basically sabotaged it. "Oof. We could not have asked for a better team to play for your first time. Austin and Madison are totally hopeless at this game." "Daaaaamn," Austin called out. "Shots fired. Too bad you're going be hammered by the end of this game, y'all." "Nah." I searched for some new, germ-free cups. "We are playing with H2O. If you want a drink, hold one in your hand. Don't want anyone getting arrested like last time." "I always did love a man who took charge," Austin called back. "Aaaaand Austin owes us pizza," I said. Some freshman handed us drinks to hold while playing with the water. Eliza handed hers to me, unopened. "What's this?" said Madison. "Little Miss Perfect isn't going to play the game?" "It's fine, Madison," said Austin. "We're here for fun." "No. I want to know why she won't play the way you're supposed to." Austin and I lined up the cups to start the game, the goal of which was to throw the ping-pong balls into the cups, each team taking turns, until the first team to hit all the cups won. Before I could shoot my ball to start, Eliza pulled it from my hand. "Nope. Ladies first. Let's go, Madison. Me and you." My lips hung apart. Austin jumped with excitement. Madison took the white ball from Austin. Neither girl said anything as they took their shots. Eliza sunk hers easily in a red cup in front of Austin. Madison's bounced off a rim from our stack, and Eliza jumped to catch it before Madison could take it back. Madison drank from the can in her hand. Eliza, since she'd recovered Madison's ball, got another shot. She lined it up and it splashed in. "What?!" I shouted. "I thought you said you'd never played this before!" "I said I didn't want to drink." It took every ounce of my self-restraint to not kiss her. Eliza and I missed a few shots through the game, though not nearly as many as Austin or Madison. I hadn't been kidding when I said they were a good team to play against, because they were terrible. When Eliza and I had beat them by several cups, Austin let out a low whistle. "Good game. Don't think I've been creamed that bad in this game . . . ever. Those O'Connor genes, dude." He shook his head. "You might want to eat some food, drink some water, or sit down somewhere," I teased them. "That rocked," said Eliza.