Read Online In Too Deep by Coert Voorhees - Free Book Online Page A

looked down at my outfit: dirty pink tank top, paint-splattered shorts. “I can’t,” I said eventually.
    “Come on,” Josh said. “Just for a bit.”
    Nate rocked impatiently from side to side. “I didn’t come down to Mexico for spring break so I could lock myself in a hotel room.”
    “There’s a brand-new club,” Katy said. “It’s supposed to be hot.”
    “You checked out a club?”
    “Try to keep up.”
    “But Alvarez—”
    “And Wayo will be telling war stories in that dive shop for the next four hours, and you know it,” she said.
    Josh pulled a wad of American cash from his pocket. “This’ll be fun,” he said with a wink. “Trust me.”
    I opted to give de la Torre a rest and changed into something less comfortable. The thought occurred to me, as I slid into my flip-flops and hustled after the others, that the thing they’d never admit in health class is that peer pressure is almost impossible to resist. And Josh was the ultimate gateway drug: harmless at first, all green eyes and aw-shucks grin, but once you got a taste, you wanted more and more until you found yourself doing things you’d never have believed were possible.

NINE
    T he smell of sweat and spilled alcohol hit me like a wave the moment we stepped onto the second level of Club Starzz. Black lights ignited white clothes and set teeth aglow. Framed movie posters papered the walls, and cardboard cutouts of famous actors and actresses stood sentry at various points around the room. A seven-foot Jessica Rebstock—brandishing an old rifle and dressed as a straight-shootin’ prairie mama from No Home for Cowards —hovered eerily next to the packed dance floor.
    “I was getting homesick,” I said as we lucked upon an empty table, but Josh either didn’t hear me or didn’t grasp the absurdity of us going to a Hollywood-themed club.
    “Margaritas!” Nate said, and we all clinked our glasses together. A techno remix of last year’s Top 40 rattled the drink in my hand. I put it down on the table after the tiniest of sips. Sneaking out of the hotel was one thing, but getting drunk would take it to a whole different level. A level where the least horrible thing that could happen would be losing my scholarship.
    Nate took his drink with him as he stalked around the dance floor, leaving me and Katy at the table with Josh.
    “So, is it weird to see that poster of your mom?” Katy put her elbows on the table and pressed her boobs between her arms as she leaned toward Josh. “Is it like she’s…watching you?”
    I hoped he’d see right through her, but it was obvious that the only thing he saw was exactly what she wanted him to see. Her chest shook when she giggled, and I thought smoke was going to come out of his ears.
    “You get used to it,” he said.
    “Don’t you think someone might recognize you?” I said.
    “Nah, I’m nobody.”
    Nate returned with half his drink already empty and motioned to a pair of blondes dressed in outfits that made Katy’s look Amish.
    “Those chicks are college girls, bro. Down here from Idaho.” He snorted a laugh. “Ida-ho.”
    “Shouldn’t we be getting back?” I knew how it sounded, but I couldn’t help it.
    Josh pulled his phone from his pocket. “It’s only ten fifteen,” he said.
    “I told them we went to UCLA,” Nate said, and then, nodding to me, “and that she was your little sister.”
    “Sis!” Josh said, elbowing me and laughing.
    I gritted my teeth into a smile I hoped would mask my shame.
    “I can definitely see the resemblance,” Katy said.
    After not nearly enough urging, Josh got up and followed Nate to the dance floor. Katy stayed at the table for about a millisecond longer. Then she gulped her drink and headed into the throng directly behind Josh, where the two of them proceeded to, as they say, ignore their inhibitions.
    Josh had forgotten his cell phone on the table. I figured it had an international plan, and besides, he wouldn’t mind if his sister