Evan was nearly out of the labyrinth of private booths when he heard Rob's distinctive laugh from behind one of the curtains. He stopped and listened. He could hear Rob and Lily giggling together.

"Lemme show you," he heard Rob say in a low, rough voice.

"Rob," Evan called.

The giggling stopped.

"Rob?"

"...Yeah?"

"It's Evan," he said. "Where are Brian and Matt?"

"They went to the Tap Room," he said. "We'll be out in a bit."

"I'm gonna wait with you."

"Don't come in," said Lily. "I'm naked."

"Well, I'm coming in anyway," snapped Evan.

He brushed the curtain aside and stepped into the booth. Lily was straddling Rob the same way Molly had straddled Evan, but whereas Molly had kept a certain professional distance, Lily was pressed up on Rob and their arms were around each other.

Lily took a swallow from a shining silver flask, side-eyeing Evan.

"The fuck, Barker," said Rob.

"I'm not waiting out at the table like a fucking loser," said Evan, scooching in next to Rob. "And I'm out of money. I'm not going out there again until we leave."

The last thing he needed was to sit and wait while Molly was probably telling everyone in the vicinity about the idiot who hadn't been able to pay for all the dances he'd agreed to. He needed to leave and soon. And he would most likely never be able to come back.

"Are you coming back to Nelson's with us?" Rob asked Lily. "I'm bored here anyway."

Lily nodded slowly.

"I think I will."

"K, I'm gonna go piss and then we'll go get the drunk-asses and Barker can drive us all back to Matt's."

Lily stepped off of Rob. He stood up and was out the curtain. Lily sat down next to Evan, theatrically batting her eyelashes at him. She was wasted and still naked.

"So... Evan Barker... been awhile...how have you been?"

"Been all right," he said. "How have you been?"

"I have been just fine, thank you."

She picked up her phone and tapped the screen, watched it light up, set it down again. Evan saw the tattoo on her left shoulder was a skull with a joint between its teeth. The one on her inner arm was a long black feather surrounded by words scrawled in elegant, indecipherable cursive. The one on her wrist was a diamond jewel. He couldn't read the one above her vagina in the dim light, or see the ones on her other arm.

"It's been like, five years since I last saw you, I wanna say," she said.

"Yeah, something like that."

"How's your lovely family?"

"They're good," said Evan. "How's yours?"

"They are also good," said Lily. "Same shit, different year."

There was a pause. Evan asked the first thing he could think of.

"How long have you been working here?"

"A couple of months."

"Do you like it?"

"It's okay. The money's good. I'm saving up and I want to go to Eastern."

"For what?"

"For either psychology or education."

"Ah..."

"Are you going to school?"

"Yeah, just Schoolcraft for now. I have no idea what I want to do."

He was trying to not stare at Lily's exposed breasts but found his eyes drawn back to them every time he forced them away.

"How old are you now?" Lily asked.

"Just turned 21," said Evan. "And that would make you 19."

"Yeah, I turn 20 next month."

"So what were you doing the past couple years?"

"Oh, you know, whole bunch of shit," said Lily, looking at her phone again. "Uhhh... I dropped out of school, I worked at Moose Ridge for like a month and then quit cause I hated it."

"Ah, yeah, that golf course off Doane Rd?"

"Yeah, that one. And, I don't know, there was a lot happening at home..."

"Well, how'd you end up here?"

"Well, it wasn't good stuff happening at home."

"Are you still living there?"

"Fuck no."

"Where are you living now?"

"Brighton," said Lily. "Same city, different area. I rent a trailer now."

"Does your mom and Larry know you're working here?"

"No, I don't talk to them anymore. Haven't for like a year now. And even if

they did I don't think their little hearts could take it."

Evan nodded. He couldn't think of anything else to ask. He wanted to keep asking her about the job, to find out what had transformed her from the squirrelly, chipper, bright little girl he'd known from his grade school days into this morose but stunningly attractive young woman sitting next to him cross-legged. Her naked body seemed radiant in the dull blue light. He could feel her shoulder brushing his. Her hands were in her lap and his hands were in his lap.

Lily's phone illuminated and she began texting again. Another amused smile broke out on her face as she read the text.

"Is that your boyfriend?" asked Evan.

He remembered his father teasing Lily about having a boyfriend when she'd come by with Marty one day. A day that now seemed eons ago. She'd wrinkled her nose up and yelled, "NOOOOO," and Evan's dad had laughed.

"No, just a friend," Lily said. "He works a night shift so he texts me a lot."

"Ah, yeah, same schedule, gotcha," Evan said. He swallowed.

He swallowed and tried to laugh.

"Good Lord, how long does it take a guy to piss?"

"He's fucking wasted," said Lily.

She brandished her silver flask and took a sip.

"They don't serve alcohol here but I was nice and shared with him."

She offered it to Evan.

"I can't, I'm the DD," he said.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said. She texted some more.

"Well, looks like you turned out pretty good, Lily," Evan blurted.

He didn't mean to be looking at her body when he said it, but he was. He found her taut belly to be extraordinarily enticing. His mind flashed images of him rubbing his cheek on it, tasting that tattoo emblazoned across her waist.

"I hate my body," said Lily. "All women hate their bodies. Little secret."

Evan really wished Rob would get the hell back here so they could leave. He kept expecting a bouncer to stick his head through the curtain and point at him and say, "You. Come with me." And Lily would laugh and he'd be gone.

"How's Marty?"

"He's good. He lives in Alabama now. Mobile."

"Yeah, I heard about that. He's in construction?"

"Yeah, he does drywall. He moved down there for the job... last fall I think? He's got a girlfriend, works a lot. I'll tell him you said hi."

"Sounds good," said Evan. "Please do."

He needed something to take his mind off the fact that his dick was practically screaming at him. He thought of the memory of his father and Lily again.

"Do you remember when we were kids--" Evan started to ask, but Lily cut him off.

"Yeah, can we NOT talk about that right now?"

"Sorry," said Evan, stung.

He sat quietly and waited for Rob.