Page 179 of Silver Sweet

“Just to aggravate my enemy.” I join her near the sparkling nighttime view. She’s scowling so hard, no one bothers her. I eye her Solo cup. “What are you drinking?”

She tips the cup to me.

I laugh. “You did not put jolly ranchers in your tequila.”

“I did. And it tastes really fucking good.” She takes a long, defiant swig.

“Don’t come running to me when you choke.”

She bites down on the candy. “I won’t because you look like you can’t do the Heimlich.”

“Okay, pre-med snob, Icanpick you up, but I wouldn’t—not even if you were halfway dead.” I scour the party. “Where’s Ben?”

“Your room.” She explains how Eliot and Ben are opening the windows and the doors to their bedrooms to circulate cool air. Sweat soaks through Harriet’s white cropped top.

I rub beads off my forehead. “Eliot knows I won’t care if our friends go into my bedroom, but I’m surprised Ben would want them in his.”

Harriet shrugs. “He doesn’t care about material objects, and Mister Feathers is safe in Xander’s apartment tonight.”

I can’t see how Ben would be okay if someone broke one of my guitars or messed with his girlfriend’s stuffed animal that she leaves on his bed.

Like she can see where my mind is descending, Harriet says, “He’s learning how to process fucked-up, messy situations. He knows he’s not the root cause if things go bad.”

My chest rises. Is he getting better? Or is it just hopeful thinking?

I’m tempted to ask, but I’m too afraid the answer won’t be what I want. So instead, I say, “You can go mingle, you know.” I gesture toward the different clusters of my friends. “They don’t bite.”

Harriet swishes her cup. “I like the air over here.” Her blue eyes flit up to me, then down.

“I do breathe clean air.”

“Notyourair, dude. Jeez.”

I catch her arm when I see Phoenix. “There he is.” Then I retract fast when I realize I’m touching my blonde nightmare.

Harriet looks unbothered. “He’s coming over here.”

“Probably for the clean air that has absolutely nothing to do with me,” I banter.

She gives me a middle finger while sipping her drink, and as Phoenix breaks through a dance pit, he stops dead five feet from me.

We take a breath at the same time. He’s okay?He’s okay.I can feel him studying me the same way, then he closes the distance to say, “Your friends are interesting.”

“Interesting as in bad or good?”

“Interesting as in one couldn’t stop name-dropping actors and the other kept backhand-insulting me. He said only no-named bands go on Susie Mac’s channel. Among other things.”

Anger pricks my skin, barely a surface-level burn. “They aren’t friend-friends,” I remind him.

“So they’re fake friends?”

“They’re friends I don’t care about, dude. They can talk shit and be jealous and put me down from afar because they’re not going to touch me. I won’t let them. So don’t let them get to you.” I skim him as he pushes damp hair out of his face. “Have they gotten to you?”

He lets out a laugh. “No. I’m mildlyannoyed at most.”

I nod. “Good.”

He checks me out. “Worried about me?”