‘What?’ I said, but I barely got the word out before she was yanking me sideways, past Eli – who was chewing, watching us – and out onto the back deck, where Leah was clearing a path through the people there.

‘Hurry,’ she yelled over her shoulder, and Maggie nodded, still dragging me behind her. ‘I think if we go down the stairs this way, we can get out faster and maybe avoid this.’

‘Right,’ Maggie replied, ‘let’s definitely avoid this.’

‘What are you guys talking about?’ I asked as Maggie dragged me down a short flight of stairs to a lower deck, which was a bit less crowded. ‘Avoid what?’

She turned, as if to answer me, but didn’t get the chance. Because right then, a glass door to our right slid open, and the girl from the dance floor – Miss Red Lipstick, cupcake, less is not more – appeared, planting herself squarely in our path. Two of the girls she’d been dancing with, a redhead in a black dress and a shorter, pudgy blonde girl, spilled out behind her.

‘Okay,’ she said, holding up both hands, palms facing us. Her voice was kind of nasal, thin. ‘What just happened in there? And who the hell is this?’

She was looking right at me, as were both her friends, and I felt myself break into a cold sweat, instantly, something that I’d read about but never actually experienced before in my entire life. Maggie, releasing her hold on my arm, said, ‘Belissa, it’s really nothing.’

‘Nothing?’ Belissa took a step toward me. Up close, I could see the bumpy texture of her skin, how her nose was a little pointier than she probably liked. ‘What’s your name, skank?’

At first, I thought this was both a question – what’s your name? – and an answer. Then I realized she was actually waiting for a response. ‘Auden,’ I said.

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Auden,’ she repeated, the way you’d say scrotum or excrement. ‘What kind of a name is that?’

‘Well –’ I said.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Leah said, cutting me off. ‘Like Maggie said, nothing happened.’

‘Was she, or was she not, in there hitting on Eli?’ Belissa demanded.

‘She wasn’t,’ Leah said, her voice flat. Certain. The blonde and the redhead exchanged looks. ‘She’s not from here, she doesn’t know anybody.’

‘Or anything,’ Maggie added, sounding less confident. Belissa glanced at her. ‘You know what I mean.’

‘I saw how he was talking to her,’ Belissa said. It was weird how she was staring at me, and yet at the same time ignoring me completely. ‘He was smiling, for God’s sakes.’

‘He’s not allowed to smile?’ Leah asked. Maggie shot her a look, and she added, ‘Look, Belissa, it was an honest mistake, and we’re leaving. Okay?’

Belissa considered this, then stepped even closer to me. ‘I don’t know who you are,’ she said, punctuating this with a jab of her finger, the tip touching my chest. ‘And I don’t really care. But you better stay away from my boy-friend, especially when you’re under my roof. Understood?’

I looked past her, to Maggie, who nodded, her head bobbing wildly. I said, ‘All right.’

‘All right,’ Belissa repeated. Behind her, Leah sighed, looking up at the sky. ‘Now get off my property.’

And with that, Maggie was yanking my arm again, dragging me down the nearby stairs. She continued her death grip on me as we followed Leah down to the beach, around a dune, and then over a public walkway, back to the street, not letting go until we were back at the car, where Esther was waiting.

‘Where the hell have you been?’ Leah demanded. ‘We could have used you back there.’

‘Let me guess,’ Esther said as Maggie and I got in the backseat. ‘Something undignified happened.’

‘If you call Auden just about getting all our asses kicked undignified, then yes,’ Leah told her. She slammed her door shut, then turned around in her seat to look at me. ‘Are you crazy? Flirting with Eli Stock in front of Belissa Norwood, in Belissa Norwood’s house, while eating Belissa Norwood’s cupcakes?’

They were all looking at me now. I said, ‘We weren’t eating those cupcakes.’

Leah threw her hands up, turning back around as Esther cranked the engine. Maggie, beside me, said, ‘You guys, she didn’t know about any of that.’

‘She didn’t know about you and Jake, either,’ Leah said. ‘But that didn’t stop you from wanting to flatten her when she hooked up with him.’

‘True,’ Maggie said. ‘But, like Belissa, I was in the wrong. She and Eli are broken up. He can talk to whoever he wants.’

‘But that’s just the point,’ Leah told her, turning to face me. ‘Eli doesn’t talk. To anyone. Ever. So why is he talking to her?’

No one said anything. Finally, I cleared my throat and said, ‘Well, I don’t know. He just does, ever since this one night when I saw him riding his bike.’

Silence. They were all staring at me, even Esther, who used the rearview. Maggie said softly, ‘You saw Eli on a bike? What was he doing?’

I shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Tricks? He was jumping around, at the end of the boardwalk.’

Maggie and Leah looked at each other. ‘You know,’ Leah said, ‘I think maybe…’

‘Agreed,’ Esther said, hitting her turn signal as the Gas/ Gro came up in the distance. ‘We definitely need some snack bang for this one.’