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the bed. He tapped his foot into mine.
    “I had them delivered,” he said. “I had to pay the guy fifty bucks to do it.”
    I shifted my eyes onto him.
    “I’m not lying,” Conner said. “I told you I wouldn’t leave. Here.”
    He stood and took one of the coffees and held it out for me.
    I sat up and scooted my back against the wall so I could drink.
    “What time is it?”
    “Three,” Conner said. “My parents are supposed to be back before midnight. Everyone’s been calling for you. Your phone’s battery’s dead.”
    “Everyone?”
    “Well, not everyone. Your grandparents.”
    “What did you tell them?”
    “I told them your battery’s dead. I told them you’d be home after my folks get back. Everything’s okay. You know, they trust you and stuff.”
    Conner sat down on the bed next to me. “Are you in trouble for something?”
    “No.”
    He leaned toward me, like he was confessing or something, almost whispering. “Are you mad at me? For what happened at the party? You know. I was just being…I don’t know. Sorry if I pissed you off for doing that, Jack.”
    “I’m not mad at you, Con.”
    He sat up straight, exhaling. “Okay. Because I just…you know, I don’t want it to creep you out or nothing before we leave for England. But, dude, I am going to see to it that you get laid before you come back from summer.”
    He smiled, but his expression was uneasy.
    Conner sipped from his coffee and jerked it away from his mouth. “This goddamned stuff never cools off.” He smiled stiffly. “So. Jack. What happened to you?”

Nine
    “Let’s kill the fucker,” Conner said.
    I knew he wasn’t serious. Conner was never really serious about anything. That’s why he didn’t even flinch the night of the party when I walked in on him and Dana having sex. Everything was a game to him, and he was always just trying to see if I’d play along.
    So I told him what happened to me, as clearly as I could remember it, from when I took that beer from some kid I didn’t even know after we peed on the side of the house, to when I showed up back at his doorstep. And Conner just shook his head when I told him about the things Freddie did, like it was hard to believe. I could hardly believe it myself, even though the words were coming from my mouth.
    Once, Conner asked, “Did he…you know, make you…did he fuck with you?”
    “No,” I said. I stopped, waited, tried to swallow. “Not really. He was going to, though, after he gave me a shot. He started to try it and then his phone rang and he got pissed off and that’s when he left. I had to fight from blacking out then. That’s when I twisted a piece of metal from the bottom of the bed and got out of that shit.” I swallowed. “He was all in this weird power trip of trying to make me ask him for everything.”
    I showed Conner the marks where the stun gun had left blisters on my skin—on my belly and under my arm. I showed him the needle mark, too.
    “He still has my clothes and my wallet. And the shoes I just bought.”
    “You should go to the cops or something.”
    “No,” I said. “I’m not going to say anything to anyone but you, Con. What would they do, anyway? I’d just end up in trouble for being drunk and on drugs. I don’t want everyone to know how stupid I was. Especially Wynn and Stella. I’m leaving on Thursday, Conner, and I don’t want this to mess things up. I just want to forget about it.”
    “But what if he does it to someone else?”
    “I wasn’t the first,” I said. “He’s going to get caught. Just, let’s not mess up the summer over this, Con. I was stupid and it was my fault.”
    Conner shrugged. “You could at least scare the shit out of him.”
    “Don’t tell anyone, okay?” I asked.
    “No worries,” Conner said. “Everyone already thinks you’re gay, anyway.”
    Conner could tell by my expression I didn’t think his joke was funny.
    He kicked my foot. “Hey. I’m just kidding. It’s going to be