Ferris was on the hockey team with Kierce. He was kind of a jackass, but his parents were out of town and it was going to be a big party, so I wasn’t about to miss it. We picked up the beer Jay had scored for us and hidden at the Spot. Before heading to the party, we each downed one, and then cracked a road rocket. I hated the taste of beer, especially when it had been sitting outside in the heat all day, so I usually drank it in quick gulps to avoid the taste. By the time we got to the party, I was already kind of buzzed. Ferris met us at the front door. “Come on in, boys!” he said, ushering us into the house. In the kitchen, a couple of girls were trying to point a speaker out the window so the music would blast into the backyard. Kierce beelined to them and started flirting, and I followed Jay out onto the deck so he could join the smokers. He lit a smoke, and we stood at the railing looking down at the crowd that had gathered around a bonfire in the backyard. “Don’t look now, Dan,”
