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said.
    Daniel steered her toward the sink where a pocket of reduced
jostling beckoned.
    “How did you get here?”
    Zola peered over her shoulder at her friends, but let Daniel
guide her by the elbow away from them. “I was at Susie’s and her boyfriend
called. We just stopped by so she could see him.”
    Daniel tried to grab the cup of beer from her, but his
sister steered it away from him. She took the opportunity to nod at his cup.
“Didn’t you tell mom you wouldn’t drink tonight?”
    “Did I?” Daniel asked. “I thought she said one was okay.”
    Zola frowned, and Daniel remembered correctly.
    “Truce,” he said.
    Zola nodded. She took a defiant sip of her beer, and Daniel
felt some foreign sensation, like seeing a color he couldn’t name. He wished
he’d hadn’t gotten a beer so he could lecture her, or stop her, or feel less
like a hypocrite for doing so. He took his own sip instead, feeling suddenly as
if he and she were both of an undeterminable age and either a gap had opened
between them or had closed. He had no idea which it was, or in what direction.
    “Did you get invited to this?” Zola asked, lowering her
drink and glancing back at her friends.
    Daniel felt a twinge of humiliation. “Roby invited me.”
    “I thought I saw him when I came in,” Zola said. “But
who invited him ?” She raised her hand. “Never mind. I don’t care.” She
nodded to one of her friends, who was waving her hand. “I’ve gotta go. My
friends are waiting for me.”
    “Wait. When did you get here? Have you seen Roby?”
    She pointed toward the ceiling. “He was going up the stairs
when we came in the front door. I dunno, maybe ten minutes ago?”
    Daniel watched as she spun back toward her gaggle of
giggling, freshman friends. He peered down at his beer, finished off what was
there, realized he was already buzzing and was destined to get grounded for the
miserable evening he was having. He went off in search of Roby.

8
    Daniel worked his way through the kitchen toward the living
room. The stiffening wind outside whistled through the cracked sliding glass
door, mixing with the laughter and screams outside. In the living room, the
gamers had retired from their eight man tournament and were now watching
YouTube videos on the larger of the two TVs. One boy sat on the floor with his
laptop, which seemed patched through to the display. Daniel watched a boy on
screen jump from a rooftop toward a trampoline, missing violently. The kids on
the sofa jumped up and laughed in horror; they clasped their hands over their
mouths or pumped their fists.
    “You need to get in line,” a girl yelled at him, as Daniel
started up the steps.
    “Excuse me?” He worried he was slurring already.
    “The bathroom? This is the line.” A girl he thought he knew
from one of his classes pointed at the long stream of girls standing on the
steps, snaking all the way up.
    “I’m looking for someone,” Daniel said. But just the mention
of the bathroom, and the recently-downed beer, had awakened his bladder.
    “I’m watching you,” the girl said.
    Daniel lowered his brows at her, wondering if she were
serious, then began pushing his way up the crowded steps. A couple came half-tumbling
down in the other direction, and he had to press into some other kids to let
them by. That started a fresh round of complaints and cries of “creeper” and
“no breaking.”
    At the top of the steps, Daniel made his way past the
bathroom into all the glorious open space in the hallway beyond. Two kids
stumbled into a bedroom and were yelled at by some other kids. They came back
out giggling and covering their mouths, hanging onto one another and sloshing
beer. Daniel got out of their way as they staggered toward the steps.
    “Roby?” Daniel rapped a knuckle on the bedroom door.
    “Fuck off!” someone not Roby yelled.
    He went to the next room. The door was open a crack. Daniel
pushed it open a bit more. “Dude, are you in there? I think I need