“That looked like a real sense of failure,” I said.
Wren took the next shot and bounced it right off the rim.
Groans and cheers broke out all at once.
Then Alice stepped forward.Something about the way she held the ball told all of us she was about to either do something impressive or humiliate herself beyond recovery.
“Do not make this,” Lark said.
Alice smiled sweetly.“Watch me.”
She launched the kickball and it sailed in a perfect arc, hit the inside of our last remaining can, and dropped with a hollow bang that somehow sounded louder than every other shot that night.
For half a beat, nobody moved.
Then Alice lost her damn mind.She screamed so loud I flinched, threw both arms over her head, and immediately started running a victory lap around the game setup while Wren doubled over laughing.Bell, from a nearby table, started clapping like Alice had won an Olympic medal.Star whistled.Clove stood up and shouted, “That was sick!”
Lark stared at the can, betrayed.“I hate all of you.”
I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.
Alice came back around, triumphant and breathless, and pointed at us.“Bow before your champion.”
“Absolutely not,” Lark said.
Wren grabbed Alice by the wrist and lifted her hand like a referee declaring a winner.“The queen of garbage-can beer pong.”
Alice preened.“As it should be.”
“That title sounds like a disease,” Lark said.
Alice gasped.“Rude.”
“I’m still not wrong,” Lark shrugged.She took a long drink of her Amaretto Sour and sighed dramatically.“Next time Jesse needs to come with us so at least somebody on our side can throw.”
Everything shifted.
Alice laughed first.“Oh my God, yes.We’ll recruit him.”
Wren said something under her breath that I missed because all I noticed was Jude.
Not his face, at first.
His body.
The way it went still and then not still.
He pushed off the post with a quickness that made it look almost accidental, like he’d just remembered he had somewhere else to be.
“Alright,” he said to Wren, but his voice sounded clipped.“I’m gonna head out.”
Wren blinked at him.“Already?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
He shrugged one shoulder.“Early morning.”
