The Thousandth Floor

The music playing through the speakers came to a sudden halt. The room fell to a hush, everyone looking expectantly at Eris. She thought her face would break from smiling so wide.

“Thank you all for coming,” she said into the microphone, and they all broke out in a raucous cheer. She waited for the commotion to die down, basking in it. “And thanks to Avery, for planning everything.”

Avery stepped forward, her own voice amplified throughout the room. “Happy birthday, Eris!” she exclaimed.

“After-party later!” Ming jumped in, pushing forward. She looked pointedly at Eris. “Not at your place, I’m guessing, right?”

Avery recovered first. “Eris isn’t hosting an after-party, but maybe I can—”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I assumed Eris couldn’t host, given her dad’s thinking of selling the apartment. My mom is the broker assigned to appraise it,” Ming persisted. She turned to Eris, her eyes all innocence. “I guess you aren’t renovating, like you told everyone?”

Eris knew with a sudden sinking feeling what was going on. This was about Cord, and the snide comment she’d made before yoga last week, and all the other infinite micro-aggressions she’d inflicted on Ming. She’d brought this on herself, in a way.

“Um, well, we thought about it, but then—”

“I wanted to throw you an after-party at the Nuage,” Ming went on, relentless, “but I went to their special events desk, and they said you weren’t staying there.” A few murmurs rose up in the crowd. Eris felt her face redden. “Where are you living, Eris?”

“Well, we’re moving, and—”

“Happy birthday to you,” Avery interrupted, throwing her hands into the air to illuminate the candles, which lit up with custom pink flames. The song continued, but in a halfhearted way. Eris could see that everyone was murmuring to one another, looking things up on their contacts. Ming had started something, and now the insatiable gossip machine wanted answers.

Tears pricked at the corners of Eris’s eyes. She looked out over the party she’d been so excited about all evening, the beautifully dressed crowd and expensive booze bubbles, and felt suddenly like an imposter. Her old life didn’t belong to her anymore. She was a nobody who would go home to a cramped, cockroach-filled apartment two miles below them. She couldn’t even return to her old apartment if she wanted to, because her dad apparently might sell it. She’d known he was staying at the Nuage, but she hadn’t quite realized how painful the apartment must be to him, with all the memories flitting around it like ghosts. She felt an aching sense of loss, at the realization that she’d likely lost her childhood home forever.

It was the last fragment of her old life, falling away for good. She wasn’t Eris Dodd-Radson. Not anymore.

The song died down. “Make a wish, Eris!” Avery said brightly, but Eris just shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.

“Eris—” Avery reached for her, but it was too late. Eris had turned and was running blindly out of Bubble Lounge, tears streaming down her face for all the world to see.



LEDA



“THERE YOU ARE.”

Leda strode violently over to where Avery was standing alone, drinking from one of the bubbles. Its blue light flickered over her face, picking up the glo-makeup dusted on her lips and eyelids, making her seem almost otherworldly. Most of the girls here were wearing that glow stuff, except for Leda. It always came out clownish on her darker complexion.

“Hey, Leda,” Avery said wearily. She started to turn away.

“Are you serious?” Leda reached to grab Avery’s wrist. She was done acting like nothing was wrong. She’d tried to talk to Avery earlier, right after she and Atlas had kissed and Avery had looked so horrified about it, but she’d lost her friend in the crowd. She’d been forced to wait until Avery came down from a floating birthday cake—which she hadn’t invited Leda to join them on. God, Leda had even gotten so desperate that she’d attempted to ask Eris for advice. She didn’t know what else to do anymore.

Avery’s eyes narrowed. “I was trying to ping Eris again, if you would just let me go.”

Leda dropped her friend’s arm as if scalded. “Why have you been avoiding me?”

“I’m not avoiding you,” Avery said, her voice eerily calm.

“It’s about Atlas, isn’t it? You don’t think I’m good enough for him,” Leda said, and it wasn’t a question. “You looked really upset when you saw us together.”

Avery flinched. She seemed to be struggling with what to say. “I guess it’s a little weird for me. My best friend and my brother.”

“I get that it’s weird. But don’t you think you’re overreacting, just a little?” Weirdness didn’t explain why Avery had been cutting Leda out of her life since the start of the school year. Something else was going on.

“You could have at least told me that you liked him.”

“Clearly I was right not to, since this is how you’re reacting,” Leda snapped, frustrated.

Avery crossed her arms over her chest. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Can’t you see I’m already hurt?”

Avery’s mouth opened, but no sound come out. “I’m sorry,” she managed, and Leda could hear the strain in her words.