“Straw?” murmured a cocktail waitress, holding a platter of white straws, each about half a meter in length. Watt looked around and saw that each guest had one. People were using the straws to drink from the various bubbles, which apparently functioned like shared punch bowls.
“Um, thanks,” he murmured, grabbing a straw and holding it at his side. You didn’t research this place, Nadia?
I didn’t realize you needed help figuring out how to drink alcohol, given how many times you’ve done it before.
Watt ignored her. He stepped deeper into the crowds, keeping an eye out for Avery’s tall blond form. But before he saw her, he found another familiar face.
“Atlas,” he said with a smile, sidling over to Avery’s brother, who stood under an amber-colored bubble. “It’s been a while.” If only you knew how much of my mindshare you’ve taken up recently, thanks to your crazy ex, or whatever she is.
Atlas frowned, clearly struggling to place Watt, who held out his hand. “Watt Bakradi. We met on Carter Hafner’s boat party last year,” he lied.
“Watt, of course. I’m sorry.” Atlas gave his hand a friendly shake. “That day was kind of a blur, to be honest,” he added ruefully.
“Tell me about it,” Watt commiserated. “What was that rum bar we ended up at? Where Carter fell into the pool of fish?”
“Ed’s Chowder Shack!” Atlas exclaimed, laughing. “I’d forgotten about that! What a day.” He held up his straw and took a sip from the amber bubble. “This one’s whiskey and ginger ale, by the way,” he offered. “Probably the only thing you’ll want here. I begged Avery to order it; the blue bubbles are atomic and soda, and the pinks are champagne.”
“My dad always said not to drink alcohol from a straw, because there’s no way to look manly while doing it.” That was true, actually. He chuckled at the thought of what Rashid Bakradi would say if he could see Watt here now, standing next to a billionaire and drinking whiskey from a floating bubble. “But what the hell. When in Rome, right?” He took a long sip.
“I’m in your dad’s camp. We look ridiculous,” Atlas agreed with a laugh. “But the girls love this place, so we’re stuck with it.”
Watt nodded. “So,” he said once Atlas had taken another sip. “I heard you were gone this year. Traveling, right?”
He felt Atlas stiffen a little, the ease between them gone. “I needed some time off,” was all he said. “I’d already finished my high school credits fall semester, so I was eligible to graduate.”
“Where’d you go? Anywhere worth recommending?” Watt tried.
“Tons of places. Europe, Asia—all over, really.” Atlas didn’t offer anything else. Sorry, Leda. I tried, Watt thought, murmuring a good-bye and moving deeper into the party. Atlas was as boring and introspective as all of Watt’s hacking had led him to believe.
He saw Avery and Leda’s other friend Eris first, standing at the center of a group of people, wearing a black leather dress that hugged her curves. He recognized her from all the pics he’d seen of her and Avery together. Her long hair spilled sumptuously over her bare shoulders, and her eyes, heavily lined with makeup, glowed golden in the light like a cat’s. She was gorgeous, sure, in a bold, in-your-face kind of way. On any other night he might be trying to talk to her. But then Avery turned around and saw him, and the rest of the room dimmed by comparison.
“Watt.” Her face broke out into that blindingly perfect smile. “I’m so glad you could make it.”
“You throw a great party.”
“This is Eris’s favorite place,” Avery offered by way of explanation.
“You wouldn’t want to have your own birthday here?”
“I always try to do something a little less …” Avery trailed off, looking away.
“Less glow-in-the-dark floating drinks? Less tortured pets?” Watt nodded at Monica Salih’s shoes, which had live neon jellyfish swimming in each heel. Avery snorted at that, and shook her head.
“Just … less,” she said. “I like birthdays with nothing but a few friends, delicious food, maybe getting out of the city. Not checking our contacts a single time the whole day.”
“Really?” Though Watt shouldn’t have been surprised, given what she had said at Redwood Park the other day. “Where would you go?”
“Somewhere green.”
“Don’t you have a garden in your apartment?” He winced the moment he said it; he wasn’t supposed to know that. “I just assume you would,” he tried to recover, but Avery hadn’t noticed the slip.
“Yeah, but it’s hard to grow some things high up. A lot of plants need to put down deeper roots.” She sighed, a little wistful. “I was in Florence on my birthday this summer,” she went on, though of course Watt already knew her birthday was July 7. “Some friends and I rented boats and went out on the lake, and did absolutely nothing all day. I love that—just doing nothing. Here it feels like we’re always trying to do too much.”
“That sounds like a great birthday,” Watt said, looking at her curiously. The more he talked to Avery, the more complicated she seemed. They were both seventeen, and yet sometimes it felt like she was far older, as though she’d already been everywhere and seen everything, and was exhausted by it all. Then she waved over a rose-colored bubble, laughing in delight, and suddenly she seemed young and girlish again.