“Oh, so we’re doing this?” Tony asked. “I can smoke all you bitches.”
He took a pull from the Tito’s bottle. Then, “Never have I ever gone to therapy,” Tony said.
Brennan’s stomach swooped until he saw both Mari and Cole taking sips. He took his own and avoided eye contact.
“Way to be emotionally well-adjusted,” Cole said.
“Oh, I amnot,” Tony said.
“Maybe you should, I don’t know,” Mari said, “try therapy?”
“Never have I ever…” Cole started, “pulled an all-nighter for school.”
“Boring,” said Tony.
Mari and Brennan both drank.
“Um, how have younot?” Brennan asked. Getting caught up in a project and realizing six hours had passed was a typical Tuesday night for him in high school.
“If it isn’t done by ten o’clock, it doesn’t need to get done until tomorrow,” Tony said. “I need my beauty sleep.”
“Same here,” said Cole.
“Yeah, so you can bake up a bribe and get the professor to give you an extension,” Mari said.
“There’s nothing wrong with forming a good relationship with your professors,” Cole said. “I can’t help it if my brownies are worth giving extensions for.”
Mari cleared her throat and said, “Never have I ever…” She paused, eyes cutting to Tony in a failed attempt at discretion, then continued, “cheated on someone.”
Tony drank. “In my defense, it was high school. I was a little boy then.”
“You’re a little boy now,” Mari countered. She was squinting at Tony like she had given him a test, and he’d failed.
Brennan’s turn. Okay. Cool. Casual.
“Never have I ever”—he pointedly didn’t look at Cole—“blackmailed someone.”
A beat passed that seemed like forever, the TV blasting a commercial. Then Mari drank. Her eyes locked with Brennan as she took a long sip.
Brennan risked a glance at Cole. He was watching Brennan with a pinch at his brows, but his gaze jerked away as soon as Brennan looked. Cole focused on Mari instead and, mercifully, did the asking for Brennan.
“Who did you blackmail?” he challenged. “And why didn’t you tell me about it?”
Mari examined her fingernails. “It was nothing, really.”
“Well, now we definitely need to know,” Tony said.
Brennan kept silent. His heart was in his throat and if he opened his mouth they’d surely hear it.
“I found this guy selling test answers in high school,” she said. “But he was an office aide, so I held it over him to get unlimited hall passes and late passes.”
“Bro, I am quaking,” Tony said. “You’re the baddest bitch. You’ve girlbossed all the way to the sun—”
“I have one,” Cole interrupted, and it was the loudest and most present he’d been all night. Brennan got the impression he didn’t interrupt much, and it made Mari and Tony quiet. “Never have I ever stolen university property.”
Brennan clenched his jaw so hard he thought he might break it. Cole was being discreet and looking at everyone, but it was clear he was watching for Brennan’s answer. He gave it honestly, taking a sip. Tony and Mari drank, too.
“Damn, Mari!” said Tony. “Here I thought you were, like, a law-abiding citizen.”
