The Clique by Valerie Thomas Read Free Book Online

here, on the couch!”
                  “No way.”
                  “Come on! It’s supposed to be really good on ecstasy. Like so good, you can’t ever have sex any other way.”
                  “Well I’m not on ecstasy,” Kate argues.
                  “Oh, right.” Sean’s smile falls, as if that’s a revelation. “I could get you some!”
                  “No thank you. I don’t want any.”
                  “Aw, it’s so much fun though! Like I can see entire spectrums of color that I never could before! And you. You. Oho, you look so amazing.”
                  “I do?”
                  “Yeah, like—whoa-o. You sure you don’t want me to get you some?”
                  Kate folds her arms. She knows Aude would say yes. She’d say it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. She would try it and not look back. But I’m not her, Kate thinks. “No, I don’t want to try ecstasy.”
                  Sean giggles. “Okay, honeybuns. Can I still kiss you though?”
                  “Let’s just watch the rest of the movie.” It turns out to be boring and predictable: misunderstanding leads male and female to dislike each other, the misunderstanding is cleared up at the end, hijinks ensue. Sean can barely sit still; by the end, he’s literally shaking.
                  “Are you alright?” Kate asks. A terrible thought makes her sit up: what if you aren’t supposed to mix ecstasy and alcohol? What if he has to go to the hospital?
                  “I’m great. C’mere.” Sean picks up right where he left off, feeling Kate up and down as they kiss. Somehow, the knowledge that he’s on drugs makes the encounter more intense and awkward at the same time.
                  “Mmm, hang on. I have to, uh, go to the bathroom,” Kate says.
                  “Can I go with you?”
                  “What? No.” Kate heads upstairs, to her own bathroom instead of the guest one on the main floor. On the way in, she spots her phone lying on her pink-sheeted bed. I should text Aude, she thinks . She’ll know how to handle this. Kate knows asking any other friend—except maybe Hannah—would be more practical, but when it comes to advice, best friend trumps all. Hey, she sends, Sean showed up high on E. How’s your date night going?
                  Kate takes as long as she can, both to give Sean time to cool down and to let Aude respond. She checks her phone first thing after washing her hands. No reply.
                  She wishes she could just send him home. But that won’t work; he might crash. So instead, Kate goes back downstairs, determined to keep her boyfriend from making a fool of himself… Well, any more than he already has.
                  “You wanna go for a walk?” she asks, hoping it will tire Sean out.
                  “Yeah! A walk sounds great!”
                  Kate can’t help but laugh at his enthusiasm. Like a puppy, so anxious to do anything. “Okay, let’s go.” She has to remind Sean to put his shoes on before they leave.
                  The moon is only a sliver in the sky, and the sun’s long since set. The only light that illuminates Sean’s face comes from overhead streetlights. It looks flushed. Kate tries to think of an excuse to check his temperature, then sighs and simply holds the back of her hand against his forehead.
                  “What are you doing?” Sean goes cross-eyed trying to glimpse her fingers.
                  “You’re burning up!” Kate exclaims. Maybe a walk wasn’t such a good idea. “Let’s go home.”
                  “But we just started. I wanna go to the park.”
                  “Fine.” Kate decides a fever is