Free Dancing with Molly by Lena Horowitz Page A

saying we didn’t have to roll right away. She assured Ashley that it would only last a few hours anyway. Kelly piped up and said that she was going to start with the bong in the dining room, and Ashley huffed and rolled her eyes like this was just the most preposterous idea in the history of fun. That did it. I couldn’t take it anymore. Carson was holding my hand, and I felt tall and sexy in my heels. I’d been seeing guys walk by and eye my legs all night, and watched Carson trade smiles with every jock he’d seen that silently telegraphed, Yeah, RIGHT? I know she’s smoking hot. So when Ashley pulled her “I’m so much more mature than all of you” bullshit, I felt this defiance rip through me like a whip, and looked right at Kelly and said, I’m in. We marched into thedining room, and just the way Kelly and I approached the table with the bong made a path for us.
    The bong was one of those big three-feet-tall numbers with glass-on-glass fittings and an ice holder so that when you pull the smoke through the water, it flows over ice in the bottom of the main pipe and you feel no heat in your lungs. Because of that, I inhaled the most gigantic bong rip of all time. By the time I blew all the smoke out of my lungs, I already felt light on my feet like I was floating over my own shoes. Kelly could not stop laughing about how much smoke came out of me, and all these guys around the table kept giving me high fives. When Carson appeared I smiled and winked at him, and he started laughing. I told the guys around the table, ’Scuse me, gents. My DATE is here. And walked over and grabbed his hand and led him past the kitchen and out through the big sliders at the end of the dining room, which opened onto the pool. All the guys were hollering and making catcalls. Jess and Kelly followed us outside and we all started dancing next to the pool.
    After a little bit, Carson said he needed something to drink and asked me if I wanted anything. I told him to bring me something wet, and he laughed and headed inside. I was dancing next to Jess and Kelly and they danced with me for a second, but then Kelly danced up to Jess and got up on her tiptoes to kiss her.They started making out, and must’ve gone inside, because after a minute, I realized I was dancing by myself, and maybe feeling a little paranoid about the weed.
    I started wondering how I looked, and if my hair was still holding up. I saw some girls casting glances my way from the hot tub, and I recognized one of them as a cheerleader, but the other two I couldn’t place. I worried they were talking about me, or that my mascara was running or something, but then I realized that I was really afraid they thought I wasn’t cool enough to be at this party—especially with Carson. Part of me knew it was just the weed, and I decided to just dance more, but my toes were feeling a little pinched by my shoes. Mom’s favorite adage—sometimes pretty hurts—echoed in my head and I’d started laughing to myself when I heard Carson’s voice behind me: Damn, you’re sexy as hell.
    I spun around with my hands on my hips and rolled my eyes, a big smile on my face. I said, Where the hell have you been? I missed you.
    Did I mention that Carson is impossibly tall? And that when he throws his head back and laughs, his jaw is so perfect that I just want to kiss it? He did a couple dance moves toward me and I pretended to catch him with an imaginary fishing pole and reel him in. When he got over to me, he took one of my hands inhis and pressed something into my palm. It felt like a little wad of paper towel or something. I looked down at it and he said, Don’t drop it. It was a piece of a toilet paper square that was balled up. I instantly knew it was full of molly. I looked up at Carson, and he grinned and held up a bottle of water. I laughed and said, Oh god. Did you? Already? He nodded and did his little spin-around dance