Lexi got out of the car and went to him. “But you’re the d.d.”

“I know that. And I know my limits. You’re not my mom.” He pulled away from her and strode toward the party.

Lexi didn’t know what to do.

Mia came up beside her. “He’s pissed.”

“At me?”

Mia shrugged. “At you, me, my parents, himself. Everyone. He doesn’t know what he wants and it’s killing him. He’s always been like that. When things come easily, Zach’s cool. But when he’s confused or hurting, he loses it. Sometimes he yells and sometimes he shuts up. This time he’s yelling. He’s especially mad at Mom and me.”

“You guys would be crazy to give up USC for a crappy apartment and classes at a community college. He’ll see that,” Lexi said.

Mia took her by the hand, and they headed down the driveway. Deep in the woods, they found the small log cabin that was one of the island’s original homesteads. A big bonfire danced in front of the beach. Beside it stood a pair of silver kegs. Over to the left, someone was grilling hot dogs.

Mia and Lexi stood at the perimeter of the party, talking. All around them kids were laughing and dancing and drinking. Out on the water, a pair of Jet Skis buzzed and raced. Music blared out from a boom box on the porch. The air smelled of pine trees and wood smoke and marijuana.

As they stood there, Tyler walked past them. Alaina Smith was draped all over him, hanging on him. He had his hand on her ass.

Mia drew in a sharp breath. Wiping her eyes, she walked over to the keg and got herself a beer, downing it as fast as she could.

“Are you okay?” Lexi asked.

“Just stay with me,” Mia said shakily. “Don’t let me be alone … I might make a fool of myself.”

“I’d never let you be alone,” Lexi promised. She got a beer, and even though she hated the taste, it softened her somehow, and Mia, too, and in no time they were smiling again and making jokes.

When she finished her second beer, Mia said, “We need Zach. I have a surprise for you two. Something to tell you. Meet me on the beach.” She headed into the crowd before Lexi could stop her, and that was cool, because Lexi didn’t want to stop her. As much as she loved being with her best friend, she wanted Zach here, too. This was their graduation party, the last one before the big day, and the three of them should be together.

Lexi headed down to the beach and sat in the sand, waiting.

“There you are,” Zach said a few minutes later, sitting down beside her. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Where’s Mia? She went looking for you.”

Zach shrugged and handed her a bottle of rum. “Here.”

“Hey, you’re not supposed to be drinking,” Lexi said.

“Last one, I promise. Here.”

She hated to drink like this, without mixers or anything, but she didn’t want to upset him, so she took a sip.

“She doesn’t give a shit about what I want,” he said and lifted the bottle to his mouth again.

Lexi didn’t know if he was talking about his mother or his sister, but it didn’t really matter either way. “Yes, she does.”

He took another long drink, handed it to her. “Maybe I don’t give a shit what she wants.”

Lexi sighed. “Yes, you do.”

He looked at her, his eyes wild. “I love you so much.”

She knew exactly what he was feeling: it was the universe of her own emotions. She was afraid of watching him go; he was afraid of letting her stay. “I know,” was all she could say. She believed him now, believed in his love, and that was everything.

They needed to be strong for each other, and she would be the one to start. “I’ll never stop loving you, Zach.”

In a taut voice, he said, “Come here,” and took her hand and led her deep into the woods.

There, they kissed and undressed and made love in a way that was new; sad, maybe, and a little rough, with their bodies communicating all the difficult words they couldn’t say. When it was over and they lay there, spent, staring up at the starlit sky, Lexi reached for the rum bottle and drank until their future didn’t seem so sharp and a nice fuzziness blurred the edges.

Finally, unsteady on their feet, they left the copse of trees and returned to the party, which was now completely out of control. There were more than one hundred kids there, talking, laughing, dancing. Boys were tossing a football back and forth; a bunch of people were gathered around the kegs; more stood around the huge bonfire. On the cabin, a sign read: Class of 2004—Good Bye and Good Luck.

Mia shrieked when she saw them and stumbled toward them. “Where were you guys?” she said, handing Lexi a half-empty bottle of rum. “This is our night. The three of us. Okay?”

They stood there, a little drunk, staring at one another, an island in a sea of seniors. Mia reached out for Zach’s hand, then for Lexi’s, and, with that touch, the connection returned. They were them again.

“Let’s party,” Zach said, smiling at his sister.

Lexi could see the love between these two, and as much as it hurt to know that they would leave her, she was glad the fight was over. They needed this last summer together.

They merged into the party and became a part of it, laughing, drinking, dancing until the moon rose in a dark sky and the air turned cold. By two o’clock in the morning, the party was winding down. Kids lay sprawled on the ground, on the grass, on the porch.

Mia started to say something and stopped. “Wha was I saying?”

Zach laughed drunkenly. “You said you had a surprise for us. You’ve been saying it all night. What is it?”

“Ha, thass right,” Mia said and fell sideways. Her head smacked on a rock and she moaned, “Shit. Tha hurt…”

Lexi helped Mia sit back up. “She’s bleeding, Zach.”

They all burst into laughter at that.

Lexi tried to use her sleeve to wipe the blood off Mia’s forehead, but her balance was off and she kept poking Mia in the eye instead, and Mia just laughed harder.

Mia lurched up suddenly and stood there, swaying. “Oh man…” She clamped a hand over her mouth for a second and then stumbled sideways, falling to her knees in the sand and vomiting. The wretching sound and the smell made Lexi almost sick, too, but she went to Mia anyway, held her hair back.

“I am so hammered,” Mia finally said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve and sitting back on her heels.

Zach lurched toward them. He was so unsteady he tripped over a stone and fell down. “Is she okay?”

“Iss time to go,” Mia said. “Mom’ll kill us if we’re late. Wha time is it?”

“Two ten,” Lexi said, squinting at her watch. She thought that was right. The numbers were dancing and blurring.

“Oh SHIT.” Zach staggered to his feet. “We gotta go.”

They made their weaving, unsteady way up the bank and across the grassy lawn, stepping around the bodies of their passed-out classmates. Mia stepped on someone’s arm and laughed, yelled, “Oops! Sorry.”

As they staggered to the car, it hit Lexi: Zach was drunk. She turned to him.

He stood there, swaying like a palm tree in the trade winds, his eyes closed.

Then she looked at Mia, who was puking again. Blood was dripping down the side of her face.

“You can’t drive,” Lexi said to Zach.

Mia got closer to the car and bent forward like a rag doll, pressing her cheek against the hood. “Call Mom,” she said. She dug in her pocket for her phone, dropped it on the ground.

Lexi picked up the phone.

“No way,” Zach said. “Lass time she practically grounded us.”

“Hesh right,” Mia said. “Less jus go.”

Lexi tried to concentrate, but she couldn’t. All she could really think about was that they should call Jude, but what would Jude think of Lexi then? What if Eva found out about this? Lexi had promised to be good, and here she was at a party again.

Mia shivered violently. “I’m freezing, Zach ’tack. Where’s my coat? An my head hurts. Why does my head hurt?”

“We should sleep here,” Lexi said.

“Mom would kill us,” Zach said, stumbling forward, slamming into his car. He wrenched the driver’s door open and fell into the seat. The keys were in the well; he searched around, swearing, and then laughed, “Got ’em.”

“Get out of there, Zach,” Lexi said. “You’re too drunk to drive.” She walked around the driver’s side of the car, trying not to stumble or fall. “Mia, help me,” Lexi said. “Tell Zach he’s too drunk to drive.”

“Iss only a mile…” Mia said. “An Mom did flip out lass time we called.”

“I can do it,” Zach said, smiling sloppily.

“Come on,” Mia moaned, wiping more blood from her forehead. She opened the car door and fell into the backseat. “Ouch,” she said, laughing, and then curled up into a fetal position on the seat.

Zach slipped the key into the ignition and started the engine, which roared to life in the quiet darkness. “Come on, Lex. Iss no big deal. Less go.”

“I don’t know,” Lexi said, shaking her head. The movement pushed her off-balance and made her fall forward; she hit the side of the car. “Wait. I gotta think. This isn’t a good idea…”

Eleven

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Jude sat up, bleary-eyed.

She was on the sectional in the living room. Her cell phone lay on the cushion beside her, chirping. An infomercial flitted silently across the TV screen.

She struggled to focus on the small face of her watch. 3:37. Then she flipped open her cell phone. There was a text from Mia.

Sry wr late. On our way. Luv U. The text had come in at 2:11.

Oh, they would be sorry. They’d come home late, not checked in with Jude, and forgotten to turn off the exterior lights. This would be their last party for a while. She got up, turned off the TV and the outside lights, and locked the front door. As she climbed the stairs, she tried to decide whether to wake them up or yell at them tomorrow.

She opened Mia’s door and turned on the light. The bed was empty.

She felt a ping of fear, like a drop of acid on bare skin, and went to Zach’s room.

It was empty, too.

Take a breath, Jude. They missed their curfew; that was all. They’d started to leave the party and then been caught up somehow.

She called Mia’s cell. It rang and rang, then went to voice mail.

It was the same with Zach’s phone.

She ran downstairs to her room. Miles lay sleeping in bed, a book open on his chest, the television on.

“It’s late, Miles, and they’re not home.”

“Call them,” he mumbled.

“I did. No one answered.”

Miles sat up, frowning, and glanced at the clock. “It’s almost four o’clock.”

“They’re never this late,” she said.

Miles ran a hand through his hair. “We don’t want to panic. They probably lost track of time.”

“We could drive over there,” Jude said.