Page 58 of I Wish You All the Best

“All she gets is PBR and vodka. Not even the good kind of vodka,” Meleika says.

Nathan laughs. “This one is BYOB apparently. Maybe she heard the complaints.”

“Great, so the only way we get something good is if we bring it ourselves?” Meleika rolls her eyes. “No, thank you.”

“I heard Todd’s going,” Sophie says.

“Oh, never mind, count me in.” Meleika chuckles to herself. “He always brings something good. Like, flat-out-wasted-in-three-sips good stuff.”

“Todd’s a dick,” Nathan says.

“Yeah, but a dick with a dad who doesn’t keep an eye on his liquor cabinet,” Sophie sings.

Nathan nudges me. “You want to go?”

“Where?”

He’s still smiling. “To the party.”

“I wasn’t invited?”

“You’re so cute, Ben.” Sophie types something into her phone, and my face gets hot.

“Come on, you didn’t dress up for Spirit Week.” Meleika counts off. “You didn’t go to the game, or the dance after. You should at least come to a party. Unwind a little bit, let yourself get loose.”

“You don’t really have to be invited, you just show up,” Nathan adds.

I tuck my hands under the table. “I don’t even know any of these people.”

“Well, Todd’s a douche-canoe, so count yourself lucky. And you’ve already had the pleasure of meeting Stephanie.” Meleika laughs a little too loudly. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“It’s one night,” Sophie keeps going.

“Just come with us. We’ll hang out for half an hour, and then if you want to, we’ll leave?” Nathan tries his best to reassure me.

“I’ve never been to a party before,” I say.

“It’s basically a cheap and easy way for us to get drunk and make fun of white people who think they have rhythm.” Meleika chuckles.

Nathan rolls his eyes before he adds, “She’s right though. It’s the sort of secondhand embarrassment you only get from watching people drunkenly grind against one another.”

“Remember when Megan and Adam started dancing, and he puked all over her?” Sophie starts laughing so hard that I hardly catch the end of what she’s trying to say.

“Oh God, yes.” Meleika covers her mouth. “Ben, you have to come, at least to see what sort of embarrassing shit goes on.”

“Come on.” Nathan nudges me. “Half an hour, that’s it.”

“Fine,” I finally say, knowing there’s really no way I’m going to get out of this one. I’ll have to lie to Hannah, I guess. I doubt she’ll want me going to a party where there’s a bunch of underage drinking going on.

“Excellent.” Meleika rubs her hands together. “We’ll corrupt you yet.”

Part of me sort of hopes Nathan, Sophie, and Meleika will have forgotten about me agreeing to go to the party by Friday, since they’ve pretty much spent the last week discussing their spring break plans.

Sophie actually sounds like she’s going to have the most fun. She and her parents are going to visit her grandparents in Busan, South Korea. Meleika’s going up to the mountains with her family, and Nathan isn’t really doing anything apparently.

But they definitely don’t forget about the party. Clearly, I’m not that lucky. Fortunately it’s a half day at school, so I have plenty of time to work myself into a ball of anxiety. And I’m at a total loss when it comes to picking out what to wear.

I mean, the shirt’s easy, but all my jeans feel too baggy, my shoes feel too dirty, and I don’t even know what’s appropriate for this kind of party anyway. What would Nathan wear? Probably tight pants and a button-up shirt or something.