The Do-Over(31)
Author: Suzanne Park

 

I turned to ask Mia if she’d had her fill of frat fun so we could abort this mission, and instead encountered a girl in a fitted green dress who shoved a red Solo cup full of frothy room-temperature beer into my hand. “Really clever costume!” she admired.

 

“They say black is the new red-yellow-green!” Ethan shouted, sliding up behind me in his Elvis-esque white jumpsuit. “I’m so sorry I told you the wrong theme. Would it help if I told you I was color-blind?”

 

I cocked my head. “Are you?”

 

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “No, but I also don’t want you to be mad at me.”

 

I couldn’t help but smile. “It could have been way worse. You could have said ‘noblemen and wenches’ and I would have believed you. Wearing black or white is no big deal.” And if I was going to be honest with myself, wearing all black never failed me. Black was flattering. Black hid things. The last thing I needed was to dress like a walking highlighter, bringing attention to my lumps, ridges, and squishy spots.

 

“Normally if you wore all black you’d be hard to find, but in this sea of greens, yellows, and reds, black actually stands out,” he joked.

 

Standing out at a frat party was definitely not what I wanted. I needed to blend in—if anyone dared to tag me in photos online or dug into my past and exposed my current whereabouts, it could end my author career and any future job prospects. I’d be canceled in a heartbeat with the headline “LILY LEE IS A LIAR AND A FRAUD, AND SHE GOES TO FRAT PARTIES.” And they wouldn’t be wrong.

 

He took a large step back and spun around. “I’m wearing the wrong thing too, so I didn’t get the memo either. Or maybe I did, and I jumbled the message from PJ.”

 

I smirked. “White is tricky and hard to pull off, but you wear it well.”

 

Beth looked around, taking slow sips from her cup. “Whoa, it’s so colorful here. Like the Lithuanian flag!”

 

“Like the what? Why do you even know that?” Mia cackled.

 

“Why do you not?” Beth said, dishing it right back with a laugh.

 

“Are you two friends with Lil? I’m Ethan.”

 

“Beth. I’m her roommate.” They shook hands and she turned to me. “Why does he get to call you Lil?”

 

Mia narrowed her eyes in my direction. “Yeah, I’ve never been able to call you Lil.” She said to Ethan, “I’m Lily’s friend from home, here for the weekend.”

 

“Shoot, I forgot, she wants to be called Lily.” He grinned. “Was she always a CS whiz? She’s singlehandedly boosting our group grade.”

 

“Single-handedly? Is she now?” Mia asked suspiciously, crossing her arms.

 

I took a sip of beer. “I’m not half-assing anything this time. I’m full-assing all the way.”

 

Mia looked at Ethan and Beth. “Is full-assing a real thing? What the hell does ‘half-ass’ even mean? It makes you wonder where idioms and phrases are derived from. I was an English major, if you couldn’t already tell. What are you two majoring in?”

 

Beth and Ethan said “Psychology” at the same time. Then they had a side conversation about their classes while I whispered to Mia, “Can we go now? We can’t even get far inside the house. We’ve been in this doorway area for, like, ten minutes.”

 

She lifted her chin. “You’re right. But I have a plan.”

 

“What?”

 

Mia shot me a wicked grin. “Follow me!”

 

Going around the outside to the back of the house was far more challenging than any of us thought it would be. First, it involved moving single file while shimmying sideways, because the wooden fence alongside the property was maybe a foot and a half from the building at most . . . and it had splinters, which I found out the hard way. Second, there was something that resembled an air conditioner that was not only on, and blowing heat upward, but it was also blocking us so we each had to climb over it. And finally, because I was wearing a skirt and was too intoxicated for fine motor control, the whole crawling-over-the-blowing-device-while-air-shot-upward plan turned out to be a disastrous mistake. One that my friends could not unsee.

 

I tried to pull the fabric down while Mia and Beth helped me off the hot metal air box. Luckily the one person around who didn’t see me was Ethan, who was too busy making his way straight toward the back patio, where snacks and drinks sat on top of a green Ping-Pong table. He ran toward them, arms outstretched, like he was reuniting with a long-lost relative at the airport.

 

“Wait, where’s my beer?” I asked, looking over my shoulder to see if I’d left it behind me.

 

Mia said, “I have it. Or had it . . . I chugged the whole thing, hoping to flush out that image of you Marilyn Monroe–ing it, with your skirt flapping everywhere, but I think I need more alcohol.”

 

Ethan erupted into a cheer. “We did it! There are chips! And a keg!” The relief in his voice made it sound like he had been stranded on an island and a crate of supplies had miraculously washed ashore. “I’m in heaven!” he swooned.

 

Grabbing two cups of beer filled to the brim, Ethan handed them over to Mia and Beth.

 

“What about mine?” I closed my eyes and the patio went spinning. “Never mind.”

 

While the others drank, I pointed to the house next door. “Is that another Greek house? If not, they must haaaate all this.” My hand flopped back and forth. “All this. Stuff.”

 

Mia grabbed my shoulders. “Girl, it’s only nine o’clock. We had only two drinks each! Get it together!”

 

Ethan handed me a cup of kettle chips. “This might help soak up the alcohol. Oh heyyyyy! PJ’s here!”

 

He pointed back toward the house, where PJ emerged from the back door, wearing a Tribe Called Quest tee, red pants, and a wide drunken smile. “You came!” He ran up to Ethan and me and went in for a group hug, not realizing he had a cup in his hand and was pouring some of the liquid contents onto my shoes.

 

I frowned at my beer-tinged boots. “At least it isn’t open-toe-sandal season.”

 

Beth nodded. “Or real suede.”

 

A few guys came over to ruffle PJ’s hair. Two of them wore baseball caps and the other guy wore a terry-cloth sweatband with the Sigma Mu emblem. Within seconds, a large pack of partygoers made their way onto the patio. The instant swell triggered my rapid breathing as I looked for a quick exit. The house was farther away now that we had migrated toward the back corner of the deck.