Mom smiled now. “I remember you telling me that.”

Neither Mom nor I made a move to get up. I sat and stared at the table. Mom sat and stared at me. Finally I said, “Elise said she didn’t want to sit at home and wait around for the Bobs of the world to ask her out.” I thought of the mess my night had been. “Is that the only kind of guy that’s going to ask me out?”

Mom shook her head. “You’ll be asked out by a lot of different types of boys. Some you’ll like a lot, some you’ll like a little, and some you won’t like at all. But you know what? Most of the time you won’t know which guy fits in which categories until after you date him for a while.”

“I’m pretty sure I know which category Bob fits.”

Mom laughed. “You may be surprised, Cassidy. Give the guys in high school a few years. The guys at Elise’s parties will have partied themselves out. Bob, on the other hand, will make something of himself. He’s a bright—if not coordinated—young man.”

I pushed my chair away from the table. “I’m glad parents don’t arrange marriages anymore.”

“You wait and see,” Mom insisted. “Eventually his social skills will catch up with his academic skills. Then you’ll be dazzled.”

“He’ll still have hair that sticks up.”

“He’ll probably be a doctor or an attorney. He’ll be able to afford a decent haircut.”

“He wants to study bugs.”

Mom sighed nostalgically. “You might not believe it, but your father wasn’t always a supreme specimen of male perfection.”

“He still isn’t, Mom.”

“He is too.” Mom stood up, and we walked toward the stairs together. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. If a boy is worth having, he’ll realize what a wonderful girl you are. If not, then he doesn’t deserve you.”

It was such a mom answer. Unfortunately high school was already brimming with guys who didn’t deserve me.

Mom kissed my cheek. “I love you, dear. It’s been a long night for both of us. Let’s get some sleep.” With a smile still on her face, she said, “And Cassidy, if you ever leave during the night again, you’ll be grounded for the rest of your life.”

Chapter 10

I didn’t hear anything from Elise on Saturday or Sunday. When I climbed into Josh’s car Monday morning, Elise held up one hand. “Don’t even say it. I’ve had enough lectures at home. When Mom ran out of breath, Dad picked up where she left off. They propelled each other along for hours.”

“Sounds like you had a fun weekend.”

“I had a massive hangover, had my phone confiscated, got grounded for a month, and had to clean every window in our house. And on Saturday morning, my older brother made as much noise as possible to purposely drum more pain into my already-pounding head.”

“Mom told me to vacuum,” Josh said. “It doesn’t have a quiet setting.”

“You took two hours to do a twenty-minute job.”

“I’m very thorough.”

“And what about you?” Elise asked, turning to me again. “How did your date go?” I must have looked at her oddly because she said, “What?”

“I already told you.” I could tell she didn’t know what I was talking about. “In the car. On the way home from Kaylee’s.”

“Well, I don’t remember much of that part of the evening. What did you tell me?”

“It went fine.”

“Were you more detailed when I asked you the first time?”

Josh said, “If you’d been sober you would have remembered.” We’d come to a stop sign, but Josh didn’t drive forward even though no other cars were around. He fixed his gaze on Elise instead. “Someone is going to take advantage of you if you keep drinking like that. There are guys out there who will do bad things to you.”

Elise looked up at the car ceiling. “I already heard it from Mom and Dad all weekend. Next time I won’t drink so much. Okay?”

Josh drove forward again, but he shook his head, unconvinced.

I changed the subject, and Elise and I talked about our Antigone assignment until we got to school. As luck would have it, Josh pulled into a parking spot right next to Bob. He saw me and waited so he could walk with me. Elise and Josh hung back a little, but I knew they were close enough to hear our conversation.

Bob looked me over. “How’s your nose? It doesn’t look broken.”

“It’s fine.”

“Did the blood come out of your dress?”

“Yes.”

“How about the soy sauce?”

“It came out too.”

“I’m sorry about all that.”

“It’s fine, Bob, really.”

We walked in silence for a few moments until we came to the school steps. “Well,” Bob said. “I’ve got to get some things done before my first class, but I’ll see you around.” He hurried away after that.

When he was out of earshot, Josh and Elise caught up with me. “What was that all about?” Elise asked. “Soy sauce stains? Your nose doesn’t seem broken or anything? What did you two do?”

“He . . . sort of . . . accidentally hit me in the nose at the dance.”

“With a soy sauce bottle?”

“Um, no. That was at dinner. He knocked the soy sauce into my lap. I had to go home and change.”

Elise quirked an eyebrow up. “And you told me your date was fine?”

“Fine in a general manner of speaking.”

“Meaning what? There were no casualties?”

I shifted my backpack uncomfortably. “Well, it could have been worse.” Actually, it was worse, but I didn’t feel the need to tell her about my indoctrination into the insect world.

I noticed Josh out of the corner of my eye. He was laughing. He tried to hold it in, but didn’t do a very good job so he was disguising it as a coughing attack.

At another time I would have joined in with him, but now I thought he was just adding fuel to Elise’s opinions. I sent him a cold look. “And I don’t suppose you’ve ever had an accident while on a date?”

“Not one that could be considered assault and battery.” Josh’s coughing attack got worse. People turned and looked at us.

Elise shook her head. “That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Okay. So it wasn’t the best night of my life. But at least I remember all the details.”

“Yeah,” she said, “but why would you want to?”

She had a point. I couldn’t think of a rebuttal.

It didn’t take long for stories of Elise’s exploits at the party to spread around school. Apparently she hadn’t just been drinking. She and Cole Rider, a junior on the football team, had been kissing on the couch in front of everybody.

She didn’t seem to care very much that Cole didn’t pay attention to her after the party. All sorts of other people took notice of her now. She was an instant “in” with Kaylee and her gang. They followed her around the hallways like an entourage. Over the next few weeks she ate at their table as often as she ate at mine.

My table always seemed too quiet when she wasn’t there. It was odd how quickly I’d come to depend on Elise for energy. She had a way of making any situation feel like it could veer off into something fun. It made me wonder if there was actually something to her carpe-diem attitude to life.

I saw myself as smart and competent—someone on the right track to making the right choices. But maybe I was like one of those boring characters in coming-of-age movies. Repressed. Stuffy. Someone who hadn’t learned how to live yet.

I didn’t start going to parties, and I didn’t shamelessly flirt with the upperclassman. But I did find myself Elise-izing things, making snarky comments, looking for things to laugh at.

Elise didn’t talk about guys when Josh was around, but sometimes I went over to her house to study, and then guys were her favorite subject.

“What do you think of David Hunsaker?” she asked. “He flirts with me all the time.”

“I don’t really know much about him. He’s a junior.”

“But you think he’s cute, don’t you?”

“Sure.”

“He wants to do something with me this weekend, but so does Avery Thompson. I can’t decide what I should do.”