pretty; Bea would never say so out loud, but she was playing the game just as carefully and strategically as Lulu herself. It was comforting to see that: to know that someone who seemed so natural, so sophisticated and easy, was trying just as hard as Lulu was to stay afloat.
Lulu finds Bea caught up in a thicket of girls dancing in the grass. Her hair is sweat-matted, and her face is flushed pink. She tries to pull Lulu into the dancing with her, but Lulu pulls her back. “Wait,” she says. “I want you to meet Cass.”
Bea stops moving. She cocks her head and takes Cass in. “Cass,” she repeats. “Shit! Nice to meet you.”
“Hi,” Cass says.
“I sort of bailed on B when we went to the beach the other day,” Lulu explains, trying to make the intensity of Bea’s interest seem less weird to Cass. “She got curious.”
“Everyone’s curious about Cass,” Bea says. “I mentioned to Isabel that she was coming, and she like, she didn’t seem like she believed me. She said you and your—Ryan, that you guys never come to parties. So, what, you guys are, like, too cool?”
“God, not at all,” Cass says. “We just don’t really love it, so we don’t do it. And then people treat it like it’s a crime, not liking what they like.”
“Well,” Bea says. “I hope this party isn’t too painful, then.”
Lulu watches the two of them misunderstand each other like a car crash in slow-motion. Bea is trying to be arch, and Cass is trying to be honest, and they’re missing each other’s points entirely. Lulu wishes she were allowed to set the terms of the conversation, to explain to them, no, you’ll like each other if you do it like this.
“Um,” Cass says. “I— It seems nice. Should we, like, get drinks or something?”
“Sure,” Bea says.
So Cass has learned this survival technique, at least: Drink till it stops being awkward. Which tonight may be never.
When they get to the porch, Ryan, Oliver, and Jason are at the table, refilling their cups. Oliver offers the bottle he’s been pouring from to Lulu. “Want some?”
“I’m good,” Lulu says.
“Shapiro turns down a drink,” Jason crows. “When was the last time that happened?”
Lulu gives him dagger eyes.
“Have you and Lulu been to a lot of parties together, Jason?” Bea asks sweetly. God, even when she’s being a pain, Lulu loves her. What an exquisite bitch.
But Oliver isn’t a junior who can be cowed by Bea’s candy-coated rudeness. “Please. Everyone knows the girl is thirsty,” he says. “Everyone knows this girl has got the thirst. Speaking of which. Ryan. Is this one your lady?”
“This one’s not anyone’s anything,” Cass says, ducking out from where Oliver is trying to throw an arm around her shoulders.
Don’t do that, Lulu wants to tell her. Don’t let them know they’re making you uncomfortable, but it’s too late. She understands better than ever why Cass avoids parties: She’s sharp enough to understand so much of what’s going on at them—and she can’t hide the look on her face that broadcasts how dumb she thinks all of it is.
“Oh damn, an independent woman,” Oliver says. “A free agent. Got a lot of single women at this party, actually.” Lulu sees him realize it, but there’s no time for her to stop what comes out of his mouth next. “Got a lot of options for you, Lulu, huh.”
Lulu freezes. She and Bea have never talked about the Sloane snap, certainly not in terms of what it meant about her, and she doesn’t think Cass or Ryan knows about it at all. So she could just write his comment off as drunk nonsense. If she ignores it, maybe everyone else will too? Or is Oliver going to try to press the point? Will they even really get what he means if he does?
Bea steps up easily. She isn’t afraid of them, probably because she knows the boys are too distracted by the girl they think is their prey to see her best friend coming. “Sounds like you’re looking,” she says to Oliver. She actually physically puts herself between Jason and Oliver and Lulu, making her body available to them as a distraction. “Show me who you’ve got your eye on.”
“Who don’t I have my eye on, more like,” Oliver says, turning away from Lulu and Cass to survey the party. “Okay, see that girl there, in the pink?”
Bea nods.
Thank you, Lulu thinks at her back, thank you, thank you, thank