Finally, as we made our way through town to campus, he said, “Are we really going to your dorm, or do you want to be dropped somewhere else?”
“My dorm. Like I said.”
He shrugged. “I don’t give a shit. And I won’t tell Lucas if you wanted to be dropped at whatever big bash the Bribury elite are gathering at tonight.”
I looked at him for a second as he stared at the road. “Are you asking me if Jane is at a party?”
His snort of disgust assured me I’d made a direct hit. “Yeah. Right. Like I give a shit what little Miss Silver Spoon is doing tonight.”
“You have her wrong, you know. She said the other night half a silver spoon, but what she didn’t say is that spoon was kept away from her, used like a bargaining chip her whole life.”
“Poor baby.” His voice was dripping with condescension.
“Some said so, yes.”
He looked over at me then. “What do you mean? Who the hell is Jane Winters anyway?”
I shrugged. “Not my story to tell.” I pulled my phone out and dialed, putting it on speaker.
“Where the hell are you?” Jane’s voice, slightly slurred, came through. Loud music played in the background. It sounded like some kind of EDM, not the usual folk-lite stuff that played at the smaller parties we’d gone to. “We’re having anamazingtime, get your ass over here.”
“Where are you exactly?” I asked, now wishing I hadn’t put the speaker on. But it was a small car and Jane was speaking so loudly that Stick would have heard anyway.
“At that club in Chesney that Heather told us about.”
“How’d you get in?” I asked. Fake IDs weren’t unheard of, but if Jane had one and got busted, and I didn’t even know about it…I didn’t even want to imagine the shit storm that my father would rain down on me.
“Jane? How’d you get in?” I asked again.
“Pffft. Easy peasy. You have got to come, Lily, the dancing is hype.”
“Shit,” I said to myself. Stick gave me a questioning look. “Is Syd with you?”
“No. But Lily, you’ll never guess who’s here. Montrose! Can you believe it? I am so going to hit that tonight. He’s going to be late for class for sure on Monday—’cause he won’t be able to walk!” She laughed loud and boisterously at that. I loved Jane when she was “on” like this. She was free and daring and brave, all things I wished I could be. But being drunk and underage at a club was not a smart move. And with Montrose there too…
“Would you mind if—” I said to Stick, but he was already turning off the route to the dorm and away from town, toward Chesney, a wealthy town about twenty minutes from Schoolport. Most of the faculty from Bribury lived in Chesney, not deigning to live in the crappy town where they worked.
“I’m not sure I can get in,” I said when we’d reached Chesney and the club where Jane was partying.
“Don’t worry about it. Keep the motor running,” he said as he left the car double-parked in front of the club. “Christ, this is really fucking up my night,” I heard him say to himself as he shut the car door behind him.
The bouncer approached Stick, motioning to the car. Stick wasn’t as big and broad as Lucas, but he wasn’t tiny, either. But he was dwarfed by the huge bouncer, who towered over him. He placed a meaty finger in Stick’s chest and again motioned to the car where I sat.
I couldn’t hear them, even if I had rolled down the window—and I didn’t particularly want to. But I could see Stick chatting up the bouncer, waving a hand to me, then a hand at the club.
The bouncer looked pissed (do bouncers look any other way on a Saturday night?), but eventually stepped back and waved Stick into the club.
I sat, debating whether to call Jane again and let her know Stick was coming to get her. Not even knowing whom she was with, I figured a surprise attack from Stick might be the best approach.
It seemed to take forever, and the bouncer glared at me the whole time, while occasionally letting in new arrivals. I noticed everyone who went in was well into their late twenties or thirties, and dressed in expensive club clothes.
This was not a college club, even for those students over twenty-one.
Good God, if my father found out about this. Stick came out then with Jane in tow. Literally towing her, her arm firmly in his grasp.
She said something to the bouncer, and he stepped forward for a second, as if to answer Jane’s appeal, until Stick said something. The bouncer left Jane to Stick and sat back down on his stool.
“Lily,” she yelled in my ear, wrapping her arms around me as I stepped out of the car to let Jane get in the back seat. “You need to come inside with me. The DJ is totally sick, and I’m soooo close to hooking up with Montrose.” She looked across the hood at Stick, who was crossing over to the driver’s side.
