Social Pyramid Schemes

The red Solo cup pyramid on Tyler's coffee table had reached four levels—a literal monument to how long I'd been standing in the corner without talking to anyone.

"You look like a zombie," Maya said, appearing beside me with her own drink. "Dude, you've been hovering by the snacks for forty minutes."

"I'm observing," I lied, taking a sip of my room-temperature orange soda. "Learning from the masters."

Maya snorted. "You mean watching Brooke and her clique from across the room like they're some exotic species?"

She wasn't wrong. Brooke had already moved through the party like she owned the place, her laugh carrying over the music, her phone constantly lighting up with notifications. Being at the top of the social pyramid looked exhausting.

"Whatever." I adjusted my glasses. "At least I'm not making a fool of myself."

"Or making anything," Maya pointed out. "There's a difference between staying safe and staying invisible, Jace."

I started to fire back with something witty, but then Tyler's golden retriever, Buster, chose that exact moment to sprint through the living room, pursued by Tyler's little sister. The dog clipped the coffee table.

The Solo cup pyramid collapsed in an explosion of plastic and sticky liquid. Every conversation stopped. Forty faces turned toward me.

Because I'd somehow positioned myself right next to the table during my strategic corner-hugging, and now I was practically dripping with fruit punch.

"My bad!" Tyler's sister yelled, already disappearing down the hall.

Brooke laughed. Not mean, just—genuine. Someone handed me a roll of paper towels.

"Classic," said this guy I'd been secretly intimidated by all semester. "You should've seen the mess Buster made last weekend."

Maya grinned at me as I mopped up orange liquid with my dignity. "Well, you wanted to make an impression."

And maybe it was the sticky shirt or the fact that the worst thing that could happen already had, but I started laughing. Really laughing.

"Okay," I said. "Okay. You win. But next time, I'm picking the corner."