Chapter 7: The Deep End

Trent laughed.

It came out too high and too quick, and he looked around the patio for someone to join him.

Nobody did.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, wow. Cute. Nobody's saying you can't..."

"Dean," Drake said.

"Yeah," Dean said.

"Finley. Gabe."

"Yes," Finley said, and put down his drink.

"Oh, thank God," said Gabe.

Trent took half a step back.

"Guys. Come on. It's a party."

Drake took the beer out of Trent's hand and set it on the table.

Then Dean seized one of Trent's arms, Gabe took the other, and Finley got him around the knees.

He went up in the air, shouting, with his shoes kicking and his expensive watch flashing in the sun.

The neighbors parted in a ragged line.

Somebody started clapping.

Drake walked ahead of them to the edge of the deep end and stood there, waiting, with his hands in his pockets.

"One," Dean said.

"This is assault!" Trent yelled. "My phone's in my pocket!"

"Two," Gabe said.

"Callie! Tell them!"

I crossed my arms and looked at him.

"Three," Finley said.

They threw him.

He hit the middle of the deep end flat on his back, and the water went up in a sheet, and thirty people cheered.

A little boy in the shallow end shouted, "Cannonball!"

Trent came up spluttering, his hair plastered over his eyes, and his phone floated out of his pocket and bobbed on the surface.

I waited until I was sure my voice would hold.

"You can find your own way out," I said. "The ladder's on the left."

I turned my back and walked up the lawn.

My hands were shaking.

Every step I took, the cheering got a little quieter, and a little farther away, and I felt it start somewhere under my ribs.

I had said it out loud.

In front of everyone I knew, I had said I was awake.

I passed Dean on the grass, still laughing, with his shirt soaked down the front.

I caught his wrist without breaking stride.

"Come with me," I said.

He stopped laughing.

"Cal?"

"Now."

I pulled him across the lawn and around the side of the house.

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