Page 60 of The Initial Insult

“Brynn Whitaker is bringing me beers. That’s more than okay.”

I think of Brynn, crying in the kitchen, empty water bottles and beer cans littering the counter. “Brynn might be the only friend you have right now.”

“I’ll take it,” Ribbit says. “Listen, I gotta go.”

Downstairs I hear shuffling, the crowd moving back into their places.

“People are coming back for round two of Ribbit. Oh, and something, like, ate Gretchen’s dog,” Ribbit says, followed by a hiccup.

“Yeah, I know,” I say. “I’m upstairs sitting across from a loose panther.”

“Cool,” Ribbit says, and I know he isn’t listening. “Maddie got her calmed down, took her outside.” There’s a pause, some muttering. “Look, my man Hugh needs his phone.”

Hugh’s voice comes on, loose and shaky, but not as blurred with drink as Ribbit’s. “Don’t hate me.”

“Give me a reason not to,” I say.

“Look . . .” His voice drops, low and whispering. “The guys are just waiting to kick his ass, and I mean, like, in a brutal way. He said something about David’s mom earlier—I mean, what’s with him and moms, anyway?”

“I have no idea,” I say. “And I don’t hate you because . . . ?”

“Because as long as the show is going, there are cameras on him,” Hugh says.

“And he’s safe,” I finish for him. I think of thousands of people on a livestream, friend requests, new followers, hundreds of unread messages pouring in from around the world. David and the other guys won’t attack him with that many eyeballs on them. An assault conviction would certainly put a dent in their high school football careers, and an assault conviction against an Usher would land their asses in jail, minors or not. You don’t get to spill old blood in Amontillado.

“Okay,” I say reluctantly.

“Hey, do you know where Felicity is?” Hugh asks, his voice back to normal. “I haven’t seen her since . . . I don’t know. I just haven’t seen her.”

“Yeah, I know where she is,” I say.

“Okay, cool. Just checking on her. I look out for her, you know.”

He does. The same way I look out for Ribbit. “Yeah, I get it,” I tell him.

I think of the basement, the naked bulb above my chair, the mortar pail, the pile of bricks, and Felicity, a trail of blood leaking from behind her ear. Tonight, we switched responsibilities, and it is not turning out so well.

I hang up. In the corner of my phone the livestream continues. My messages app is nothing like Hugh’s. I have only one notification. One I sent to myself from Brynn’s phone. I exhale, my breath foul from a long night, still far from over.