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"Motherf-" Mo buries her head in her hands. "That wasn't a regular gummy bear."
"Yeah, no kidding," I say. "It tasted super weird."
"IT IS DRUGS," Mo whisper-screams at me. "YOU ATE DRUGS." "Say it louder," Will hisses at her. "Let's make sure the whole bar knows."

"It was just a gummy bear!"
"Smokey the Bear, maybe," Jonah replies. Mo jabs him in the ribs. "Ow!"

"Dave gave you what, now?" Mo's voice sounds much higher an usual.
"A piece of candy," I say. "When I came in."
"And you ate it?" Jonah asks.
"No, I saved it in my cheek like a chipmunk, Jonah."

Jonah pushes the menu away. "This place is weird. All their beers are made by, like, German monks who, I don't know, mash the beans with their feet."
Will doesn't laugh. "That's not how you make beer."
"It is at the Monastery of St. Pretentiousness."

“"Are you dealing drugs?" he says then, turning away to look at the kitchen doorway. I can see the tension in his neck.
A pinched laugh bubbles up from inside of me, from where I am still just waiting in the doorway with the night at my back. How ridiculous is it that my dad saw me with the Darlas and he still can't figure it out? I almost wish I was dealing drugs.”

“Then she scoots up the mattress and climbs under my sheet. She must be drunker than I thought.
"Get in here," she says. "You don't want to sleep on top of the bed-spread. It's where all of the bacteria congregate."”

"I don't think I got your names last night."
I take her hand, trying not to look as starstruck as my eleven-year-old self wants me to be. "Great show. I'm Sydney and this is—"
"Calvin," Cass says behind me, clearing his throat. I turn to Cass as if to telepathically communicate, What the hell? but he pointedly ignores me, cheeks still flaming red.

“Then she looks at me and says, "Reno?" And I nod, willing to follow this band anywhere.”

"This is our last song of the night," Julia finally says, breaking through the trance of the past hour. "It was written by Iris, who should have been here tonight. It's called 'Caspian." My heart seizes up at the sound of my name. My mother's.

“She leads me down the street, around the corner, up to the bored-looking bouncer who is perched out in front of the club and I try, I really try, to look cool. Even though I feel like I'm hooked up to a lie detector and any moment a giant light-up sign that says UNDERAGE is going to flash on above my head.”