“What about this Noah kid?”
Oh, Lana. She had apparently called Josh in a preemptive move, and now he was going to flex his big brother muscle. I rolled my eyes.
“Just some guy,” I shredded the label with my fingers, pulling off one soggy bit at time. The bits felt wet and cold in my hand, like used Kleenex. It was kind of gross. I shook the mashed-up label onto the counter.
“Some guy you wrote to for four years showed up on your doorstep out of the blue?” He sounded skeptical.
“How do you know all of that?” I asked shocked.
Josh threw me a disbelieving look. “You are my sister. We lived in the same house. Hello.”
I shrugged. “You never asked me about it.”
“It didn’t seem important at the time, but now that he’s come halfway across the country to go to same college as you, I think he qualifies as a person of interest.” Josh was getting his criminal justice degree. He wanted to go FBI if the football thing didn’t work out for him.
“We’re just friends,” I lied. I wasn’t about to tell Josh anything until Noah and I had settled things between us. Maybe it was part superstition, but mostly it was just self-preservation. If I admitted to having feelings for Noah, this lecture from Josh could be unending.
“But Lana said—”
I held up my hand and interrupted him. “It’s really no big deal. I can’t imagine you want to think about my love life.”
He grimaced. “Right. Okay. Well, be careful. Guys suck. They only want one thing. Lecture over.”
Thank goodness. I was right to keep my developing relationship with Noah private. After Josh kicked everyone out, he and I piled into Levacki’s car and headed to the bar where the bands were playing. Josh had handed me an ID. “It’s an old ID from a sorority sister of Levacki’s new girl. So remember when we get to the door your name is ‘Sara.’’”
“Can I keep this?”
Levacki shrugged from the driver’s seat. “Why not? I’ll just say you lost it or something.”
“Cool.” My own fake wasn’t even a fake but a real license with a picture of a brunette who didn’t look much like me, though in the dark light of a nightclub it could easily pass as legitimate. This would be useful if Noah and I wanted to go out.
When we got to the club, the bouncer recognized Josh and waved us through without requiring us to pay cover or show our IDs. Josh’s celebrity can be a hassle at times, but admittedly it got us a few nice perks. Someone had even set up a roped-off area for the bands that were competing, and a couple of tables were cleared off and set up for Josh, Nate, and the other players who came.
Our corner was right off the dance floor. I could tell that other girls were wondering how I came to be with Josh and Nate. Once they found out I was Josh’s sister, every time I went to the bathroom one of them would be there telling me how pretty I was so that I could report back to Josh how nice they were. I wanted to tell them that a) this hadn’t worked since I was twelve, and b) there was no way Josh would bring home some girl from the bar when I was with him.
He pretended that he was setting a good example. I guess he never realized how much girls gossiped about guys and sex, because I had gotten an earful ever since he started making the rounds in high school. I kept quiet about it, though, knowing he would be mortified. I certainly was.
I allowed myself to drink heavily. Josh and others were there with me, so I knew I was safe. The liquor desensitized me, and I became more frenetic as the night went on, dancing and carousing in my little group. I actually ended up having a good time. Josh eventually had enough, though, tired of babysitting me and maybe just exhausted from the game. We left Levacki there acting as the dancing pole for a few girls. He looked happy.
Josh saw me off on Sunday. “Be careful down there at Central. Have you thought about joining the chess club? I bet those guys’d make good boyfriends.”
I scrunched up my nose. “They have sex in the chess club, too. I hear it’s really crazy. The winner sweeps the chess pieces off the table and then just takes their partner right there on the table.”
Josh look horrified and partly intrigued and said, “No shit?”
I laughed at him. “I have no idea, but this is the very reason I didn’t go to State with you. You’d have been monitoring the dating pool non-stop.”
He didn’t even look ashamed at being caught.
“Just looking out for my baby sister.” Ruffling my hair, he handed the backpack to me and shut the door. Tapping on the front window, he handed the driver some cash for gas, and we headed back to State.