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Charlie?”
    “Sam’s making me a milkshake.”
    “Who is this kid?” Brad just looked real nervous and not in the Bob way.
    “He’s a friend of mine. Relax.”
    Patrick then took me out of the room and closed the door. He put his hands on both of my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye.
    “Brad doesn’t want people to know.”
    “Why?”
    “Because he’s scared.”
    “Why?”
    “Because he is… wait… are you stoned?”
    “They said I was downstairs. Sam is making me a milkshake.”
    Patrick tried to keep from laughing.
    “Listen, Charlie. Brad doesn’t want people to know. I need you to promise that you won’t tell anyone. This will be our little secret. Okay?”
    “Okay.”
    “Thanks.”
    With that, Patrick turned around and went back into the room. I heard some muffled voices, and Brad seemed upset, but I didn’t think it was any of my business, so I went back to the kitchen.
    I have to say that it was the best milkshake I ever had in my life. It was so delicious, it almost scared me.
    Before we left the party, Sam played me a few of her favorite songs. One was called “Blackbird.” The other was called “MLK.” They were both very beautiful. I mentioned the titles because they were as great when I listened to them sober.
    Another interesting thing happened at the party before we left. Patrick came downstairs. I guess Brad had left. And Patrick smiled. And Bob started to make fun of him having a crush on the quarterback. And Patrick smiled more. I don’t think I ever saw Patrick smile so much. Then, Patrick pointed at me, and said something to Bob.
    “He’s something, isn’t he?”
    Bob nodded his head. Patrick then said something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
    “He’s a wallflower.”
    And Bob really nodded his head. And the whole room nodded their head. And I started to feel nervous in the Bob way, but Patrick didn’t let me get too nervous. He sat down next to me.
    “You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.”
    I didn’t know that other people thought things about me. I didn’t know that they looked. I was sitting on the floor of a basement of my first real party between Sam and Patrick, and I remembered that Sam introduced me as her friend to Bob. And I remembered that Patrick had done the same for Brad. And I started to cry. And nobody in that room looked at me weird for doing it. And then I really started to cry.
    Bob raised his drink and asked everyone to do the same.
    “To Charlie.”
    And the whole group said, “To Charlie.”
    I didn’t know why they did that, but it was very special to me that they did. Especially Sam. Especially her.
    I would tell you more about the homecoming dance, but now that I’m thinking about it, me letting out the air of Dave’s tires was the best part. I did try to dance like Bill suggested, but I usually like songs you can’t dance to, so I didn’t do it too much. Sam did look very pretty in her dress, but I was trying not to notice because I’m trying not to think of her that way.
    I did notice that Brad and Patrick never talked once during the whole dance because Brad was off dancing with a cheerleader named Nancy, who is his girlfriend. And I did notice that my sister was dancing with the boy she wasn’t supposed to even though a different boy picked her up at the house.
    After the dance, we left in Sam’s pickup. Patrick was driving this time. As we were approaching the Fort Pitt Tunnel, Sam asked Patrick to pull to the side of the road. I didn’t know what was going on. Sam then climbed in the back of the pickup, wearing nothing but her dance dress. She told Patrick to drive, and he got this smile on his face. I guess they had done this before.
    Anyway, Patrick started driving really fast, and just before we got to the tunnel, Sam stood up, and the wind turned her dress into ocean waves. When we hit the tunnel, all the sound got scooped up into a vacuum, and it was replaced by a song on the tape