Hysteria by Megan Miranda Page B

wanted.

    We were a block away from the party that night when she stopped walking. She’d put
     her hand on my arm while I was re-tying a ponytail that I’d just undone. “You’re nervous,”
     she said.
    “My hair won’t cooperate.”
    She reached up behind me, pulled out the elastic, and threw it to the ground. “It’s
     perfect.” Then she put her hands on her hips and lowered her voice. “Mallory, it’s
     no big thing. You do what you want to do and you don’t do what you don’t want to do.
     No biggie.” Then she shrugged her shoulders and fluffed my hair with both hands.
    Easy for her to say. Turns out Colleen mostly wanted to do everything anyway.
    “Hey,” she said, her hand on my elbow. “We don’t have to go.”
    “But Cody Parker.” I grinned.
    “I like you better,” she said.
    Then I was laughing and not as nervous anymore, which I guess was her point, and we
     continued walking down the alley.
    She hung an arm over my shoulders and pulled me in close for a few steps. I could
     hear the smile in her voice. “Dylan’s gonna freak,” she said. “You know he dumped
     Danielle last week.”
    No, I hadn’t known.

    People in the dorm were getting ready for Fall Preview. Whatever that meant. Were
     they previewing the new kids, like some meat factory? Did they bring a pen and take
     notes for later? All I knew was the bathrooms were overrun with girls spending hours
     trying to look like they hadn’t spent any time getting ready.
    I saw Bree skip across the hall, following Taryn into her room at the other end, near
     the lounge. I guess they were roommates now. If she noticed me, she didn’t let on.
     I went back to my room and made a list of things I’d have to buy at the campus store
     tomorrow. First on the list: lights.
    I thought about sending Colleen another e-mail about this ridiculously pretentious
     school that calls their lame-ass dance a Fall Preview, but I couldn’t concentrate
     enough to compose a coherent sentence. Something was scraping my outside window. A
     tree branch, probably. And there were footsteps. Quiet, shuffling back and forth.
     Some guy waiting outside his girlfriend’s window, probably.
    Probably.
    But in the back of my mind — no, in the front of my mind — I kept picturing that car. It was somewhere nearby. And if the car was nearby, so
     was Brian’s mom.
    My room was nestled into the corner — far enough so the noise from the hall didn’t really bother me. Also far enough so
     nobody in the hall would hear me either. So I left the room, locked the door behind
     me, and walked through the cluster of girls streaming back and forth down the hall.
     I pushed through the door leading to the lounge and found a couch tucked away in the
     back corner. I watched the people waiting for their friends to show up, or waiting
     for their friends to come out of their rooms. So they could walk over together, I
     assumed. Like Colleen and I would’ve done.
    Krista and Bree came through the hall door, side by side. And Taryn came tagging along
     right behind them. Jason barreled through the front door, pushing the wooden doors
     so hard they ricocheted off the wall and bounced back toward him. He stopped them
     with his open palms held out at his sides.
    He stood in the entrance, scanning the room, scanning right over me, until his eyes
     landed on Krista. “Lovely, as always.”
    Krista curtsied and Bree smiled her nonmysterious smile.
    “Who’s this?” Jason asked, scanning Bree from head to toe.
    “Bree,” said Bree, even though I’d already introduced her as Bree not half a day earlier.
    He looked between Krista and Bree and rocked back on his heels. “So are we going or
     what?”
    “We’re going,” said Krista, with Bree on her arm and Taryn trailing behind.
    But as they crossed the threshold, I saw Krista reach behind her and take Taryn’s
     hand, pulling her along.
    And for a second I thought that Krista was all right. It’s the kind of thing