"We're having it now?' Star said.
"No, I mean with boys," Misty insisted. Star looked at Jade.
"Not until we've got everything the way we
want it," Jade said, as if it was the most obvious fact
of all. "When the time comes, we'll tell whomever we
all decide to invite that Cathy's mother has gone away
for the day and we have the house."
"We don't want to invite too many people," Star
cautioned, "and we better be sure no one makes it
sound like an open party or we'll get all sorts of
riffraff."
"Let's just invite boys. Four of them," Jade
suggested. "Who needs any more competition, not
that I'm afraid o
f it or anything."
Star laughed and drank some more of her
screwdriver. "I'm not! It's just ... not prudent to invite
other girls at this time," Jade insisted.
"Prudent? I like that. What do you think, Cat?
Should we just invite boys?" she teased. "Is that
prudent?"
"I don't know?' I said. "You girls know about
the only party I ever went to, really, and you know
what happened to me," I said, gazing at my drink. They nodded, all looking both sad and angry
for me as they recalled the story I had told them at the group therapy session. I had been given too much rum and Coke to drink and some boys had taken advantage and groped me while girls I thought were my friends
looked on and laughed.
"Nothing like that is going to happen here," Star
assured me. "We won't let it."
"That's right," Jade insisted. "We'll always look
out for each other!'