This is one of my favourite chapters in the book. If you've read The Geek Revolution, you might enjoy the little easter eggs that appear in this scene.

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Jake and Jamie.

In terms of dichotomies, the Jays may well have outdone me. My switch between a glamorous, sexy model with more than a million fans to a scruffy, studious science nerd was pretty extreme, but it paled in the light of the twins' explosive self-destruction.

They went from balanced, well-rounded athletes to complete drunkards. One moment they were grinding in the gym and in their studies (Jake studied Pharmacy and Jamie studied IT Management). The next they were so out of it that they thought their own reflections had come to life.

Considering they also played varsity football, and the season kickoff was days away, I was a little concerned for their well-being. They insisted on making the most of their off-season time by flooding their livers with alcohol, right up till their first game. Jamie claimed that they had done so many benders that they knew their recovery times perfectly.

"I changed my mind," I'd told Jamie two days ago, "Tonight, you're going to vomit first."

Every day this week, there had been some sort of drinking activity on the floor. The night that they had invited some of their football teammates around, there had been a higher concentration of women than usual. They were not so much throwing themselves at the footballers, but angling for one to approach them. Tonight it was quieter, with most of the floor and Sophie sat in a circle on the common room carpet. I had come up from the reception desk with a box of herbal teas sent from my mother.

I decided to join them tonight because I had skipped out on the last floor outing and felt bad about it. They really did go out of their way to include me, and most of the time I rebuffed their efforts.

Talking to Quen at Topaz, debating with him, had invigorated me in a way I didn't know people could do for each other. I was high on possibility. For once, I had energy to spare, when usually I was functioning on no sleep and willpower. My social battery brought me into the common room for a rare period of interaction.

We were playing Drunk Jenga, where each piece you pulled out had a dare written on it. Either you completed the dare or you took a shot. The person to topple the tower had to take five.

The communal tequila—every resident on the floor had each given Jake three dollars to splurge for it—sat beside the growing Jenga tower, and everyone clutched their paper shot cups. It was Sophie's turn and she was determined to leave the building sober. She was a pretty competitive person, I found out, much like her cousins.

She withdrew a wooden block and read its dare aloud. "Ask the hottest person in your contacts if they are down to fuck."

Jake and Jamie, sat on either side of her, hooted with laughter. Jake said, "Might as well take a shot!"

Sophie placed the block neatly on the top of the tower. Then she closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, like she was gathering strength. Next she pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts. I saw her type out a message and send it remorsefully, flashing the screen at Jamie to prove her completion.

"Who was it?" Riley asked immediately.

Sophie smiled exaggeratedly at Riley, "Nope. Not saying."

"But—"

"Nope," she refused. Then, as if she had started to grasp the social ramifications of what she had done, she shook her head desperately. "Nope, nope, nope. No."

Riley continued eagerly, her determination flashing like gemstones in her amber eyes. "Do we know him?"

"Only you do."

"Oh my God! From high school then? Will I guess him?" Riley screeched. "Don't make me guess him. Terrence, Drew, Derek, Reece—is it Reece? Callum—"

Jamie rolled his eyes and interjected tiredly, "It was a dude called Ben."

Sophie turned on her cousin immediately. Her fist landed on his shoulder audibly, while she yelled in his face, "Jamie! You asshole!"

I loved that Sophie only got this mad around her family members and loved ones. Whenever I saw her around campus, she was always bright and kind, never alone. But she could easily turn into a cold, vengeful being, and the more she cared about the recipient of her wrath, the easier it was for her to turn. Adorable.

"Riley was going to give herself an aneurysm trying to guess," Jamie chuckled, evading Sophie's punches. "Put the poor girl out of her misery."

"Take your damn turn, Jamie," Sophie said icily.

Riley, smartly, didn't bring up whoever this Ben person was.

Jamie read his block before successfully stacking it. "French kiss the person to your left. One minute minimum."

We all looked at Viv. She locked eyes with Jamie, who gave her a shit-eating grin. If she didn't go along with it, she would have to take a shot as well. He leaned closer, pausing a mere inch away, clearly expecting her to back down and admit cowardice.

But Viv gave a why-not shrug and wrapped an arm around Jamie's neck, pulling his lips onto hers.

Everyone but Jamie's family members cheered. Even me. I knew there was something between them. They were so great at hiding it, I didn't think they even knew it was there. But Viv didn't antagonise or criticise any person as much as she did Jamie, which was her way of getting boys.

Jamie, on the other hand, made sure that he didn't get blackout drunk on the nights that Viv did—even though Jake would brag about having more drinking stamina than him—so that he could look after her if need be. Maybe he did this unconsciously.

No-one but me noticed this. I picked up on it because I was always the one who drank the least—for good reason—or left the earliest. Introverts are perceptive. It mattered to me exactly what I was missing out on, which is how Jamie's very sweet, very hidden behaviour was revealed to me.

Plus, he cleaned up her drunken vomit. Enough said.

More than a minute had passed and Viv and Jamie were still gnawing each other's faces off.

Jake had retreated behind his hand, masking his brother's activity from his eyes. He peeked through his fingers and mimed throwing up. "Fucking hell. I'm going to lose my dinner."

"It's been a fucking minute!" Sophie yelled. "My eyes are going to burn out of their sockets."

Viv finally detached herself from Jamie, using her thumb to swipe away her lip gloss stain from his bottom lip. Jamie looked a little breathless.

Riley shuddered. "That was unsettling. Your turn, Viv."

Viv picked out a block from the bottom and read it. "French kiss the person to your right. One minute minimum."

Jamie immediately got that victorious grin on his face again, moving to lean in. Everyone let up a collective groan at the prospect of having to suffer through more softcore pornography. Multiple people audibly, passionately objected.

Riley laughed out loud, "Ew!"

Sophie cringed, "No, thank you!"

Jake physically got off his knees, leaning across Sophie and Jamie, to pluck the wooden piece out of Viv's hands and throw it across the room. "Fuck off! Choose something else."

Viv pulled out another piece. "Take your pants off until your turn again."

Jamie hooted excitedly. Viv looked around the circle of people, assessing who exactly she would strip in front of. I already knew she was going to do it. Not because she was particularly concerned about staying sober or competitive, but because it sounded fun.

This was what I loved about Viv. She was confident and gave zero fucks about what people thought of her. She was here to have a good time and make lasting memories. Vivian Sok was who Krista Ming could be, if she was actually the sexy, bold model she appeared to me.

Viv stood up and pulled her shorts off her hips, sliding them down until she stood in the common room with only her red cotton underwear. Jamie's eyes widened and he swallowed audibly.

"Goddamn, Jamie, keep it to yourself," I said.

Laughing at my comment, Viv sat down between Jamie and I again and gave him a big wink that everyone saw. Riley honestly looked a little pale. Seeing two people flirting so shamelessly was probably nauseating. It was nauseating to everyone else for a different reason, but I empathised with her. I thought of Quen whenever I thought of anything romantic, and he wasn't even into me.

I pulled out my piece. "Singles have to drink."

Fuck. Most of the wood pieces were indeed dares that had a loophole, a possible exit, but some were blanket statements. If you had to drink, you had to drink. You couldn't do anything about it.

About half of the floor held out their paper cups for tequila. Jake went around filling them up, until he had given every singleton their share of spirit.

"Cheers, losers!" He made the toast empty-handed, smiling smugly around the circle because he had Avalon.

He seemed to bring her up at every opportunity, her intelligence, her studying in Germany, her eyes. Some people thought it was annoying how frequently he showed her off, but I thought it was very sweet that he was letting it be known that he was taken, even if from a distance. It must have been hard to be separated, for both of them.

"Cheers!" we echoed.

I tipped my cup back and swallowed the tequila fast enough so I wouldn't taste it. No-one here was classy enough to demand salt and lemons—not that we had any on the floor. That method was successful up to a point, but then the aftertaste hit and my chest bloomed with the familiar heat. I didn't want to fall victim to any other reckless Jenga pieces tonight, so I stood up and bid my farewells.

"Welp." I coughed twice, the burn settling lower into my gut. "That's me for the night."

"Oh, no! You have to stay longer," Jake protested. "We miss Drunk Kris!"

I narrowed my eyes sharply at him. "We do not speak of Drunk Kris!"

Drunk Kris was... shocking. The thing was, it took a moderate amount of alcohol to get me hammered. I wasn't like Jake and Jamie, who seemed to derive pleasure from liver failure. I wasn't like Riley, who was so lightweight she only needed two beers to get buzzed and knew it. I wasn't like Viv, an experienced drinker, who managed to walk the line between remembering her night and vomiting every time. She had no memories but no bad experiences either.

Being medium-weight, I didn't feel it until it was too late. My alcohol tolerance fluctuated based on how recently I'd drunk, so I never really did know the right amount to drink. When I got drunk, I became an entirely different person. I was brazen and outspoken. I was willingly outgoing and social. I had a hard time walking straight, staying upright, speaking—the whole motor control thing became quite a mission.

Add to that the fact I sometimes went out without my contact lenses—because I simply couldn't be stuffed making myself cry for the sake of seeing things I wouldn't even remember—Drunk Kris was the subject of countless mortifying stories.

Jake narrowed his eyes back, daring to speak of what he swore to secrecy. "Remember when you thought a tree was a super tall guy and tried to hit on it?"

Everyone caught on to his tactic. The floor residents all knew that once I decided to tap out, nothing could change my mind. This was my punishment for folding on them. If they were going to town and embarrass themselves tonight, they were going to impart some embarrassment for me. To not leave me out.

"Remember when you got so drunk you vomited two days later and thought you were pregnant?" Jamie added.

Drunk Kris didn't make an appearance very often at all. I actually tried to keep her from ever seeing the light of day. But with Viv and Riley constantly trying to drag me out to town, my occasional deigning to party and the Jays' willingness to ply me with endless alcohol, sometimes the right conditions occurred for a storm to strike.

And every time that happened, without fail, I did something utterly humiliating.

Viv smiled at me, seeming unbothered by her waist-down nudity. "Remember when you tried to use the bathroom and missed?"

Riley guffawed at that, immediately remembering what an utter mess I'd been that night. That was what happened when I mixed drinks. The different rates of absorption meant that I'd been sent down a continual dark spiral to degradation. Blame vodka, Fireball, soju and rum.

My stomach physically roiled and my face went hot at the sudden onslaught of bad memories. "Fucking hell! I thought you guys were my friends."

Viv replied, "I cleaned it up, so I get to talk about it whenever I want. That's real friendship."

"And you wonder why I don't party with you," I hissed, flipping off my floormates as I went to my room.

Jake started a chant as I left, probably his way of saying goodbye. Everyone else joined in, even Sophie. Damn, I had hoped to remain the mysterious model in her eyes for a while longer, but I guess she knew the mundane, ugly truths about me now. I was just like every other university senior.

"Drunk Kris, Drunk Kris, Drunk Kris, Drunk Kris..."

The sounds only disappeared when I slammed my door shut.