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class at Stanford. You’ll be president one day. He’s a Division Two quarterback with bad grades and no future.”
    “Wow,” I say. “Thanks for the update, but…harsh.”
    “Preach it, girl,” Ames says. She raises her glass in a toast and downs the rest of the drink. Carrie shoots her an annoyed look.
    “Okay, I get it now,” I say. “Ames isn’t just drinking; she’s
drunk.
”
    Carrie turns back to Reenzie and continues her thought. “I’m just saying, high school relationships aren’t meant to be forever.”
    “Ooooh!” Ames exclaims way too loudly, leaning heavily onto J.J.’s shoulder. “She just burned you!”
    J.J. smiles tightly.
    “Except
us,
” Carrie clarifies to J.J. “We’re the exception that proves the rule. Right, Forrvee?”
    “Forrvee?”
    I say it at the same time as the guy next to Jack. J.J. blushes bright red, and as I look at him, I notice for the first time that he’s the only guy at the table not wearing a tux. He’s in a suit that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen before, so he’s had it for at least three years. And unlike Jack, who got more buff over the last three years, J.J. seems a little thinner than before, with dark circles under his eyes.
    “J.J. came up with it, Nathan,” Carrie explains. Not to me, of course, but to the guy next to Jack—Nathan! “It’s an anagram for ‘forever.’ I love you, Forrvee.”
    She leans over and kisses J.J., and I’m very glad my actual stomach is three years in the past or I’d definitely vomit.
    “Hey! How come you guys aren’t dancing?” a voice asks, and I spin to see Taylor walking over from the dance floor.
    “Tee!” I cry. “You look gorgeous!”
    It’s true. Unlike the perfectly styled Reenzie, Taylor looks naturally stunning. Her long blond hair flows halfway down her back, and she wears a simple cream-colored dress and heels.
    “We’re not dancing because the two of you look like Cinderella and Prince Charming,” Nathan says. “The rest of us can’t stack up.”
    “Two of you?” I ask. “You have a new guy?”
    As I ask, a ridiculously gorgeous guy sidles up behind Taylor. “Aw, come on. You sell yourself short,” he says to Nathan.
    “You’re Taylor’s boyfriend?” I ask. I look him up and down and notice he’s taller than Tee, even though she’s in heels. He’s also seriously polite. He holds two drinks but puts them down on the table so he can pull out a chair for her first. Before she sits, she wraps her arms around him and they kiss, and I’m blown away by how striking they are together. They’re both beautiful, but there’s also something about her pale skin, blond hair, and cream dress against his dark skin, hair, and tux that fits perfectly, like a yin and yang. And it’s not just their looks. There’s an energy between them that just feels right.
    I lean my face right between them as they pull apart. “I like him!” I say. “Good job!”
    “So I forget,” Nathan says when Tee and her boyfriend are sitting. “How’d you two meet again?”
    “Yeah, how?” I ask.
    Taylor and her boyfriend share a giddy smile.
    “You tell him,” Tee says.
    “No, you.”
    “No, you.”
    “Ugh, gag me,” Reenzie moans. “
No one
tell him. I can’t deal right now.” She turns to Nathan. “Tee and Drew met senior year of high school. End of story.”
    My nerve endings all perk up. “Senior year? That’s now! I mean…
my
now. I mean…cool!”
    “I’m bored,” Ames sighs. She grabs Jack’s drink, climbs clumsily onto her chair, raises the glass in the air, and shouts to the room, “Gwen Falls just got married!
Conga line!!!!
”
    She hops down, sloshing most of the drink onto herself, slugs down the rest, then congas her way onto the dance floor. Amazingly, a long line of people form a train behind her and join in.
    “She is mortifying,” Reenzie declares.
    “She’s Amalita,” Carrie says, as if that explains everything.
    “Hey, that’s mean,” I say. “She’s drunk at