Mark saw her coming and backed up into the buffet table. Somehow he managed to kick out one of the legs from under it and the table fell. Cucumber sandwiches, olives, and cake toppled to the ground. The well-groomed guests gawked at Mark, who had potato salad in his hair and punch down the front of his shirt. He struggled to get up and hurried toward Olivia. His tumble had gained her full attention. She’d left her jock and stood a few feet from him.

“Olivia, I love you.” He smiled at her as if he believed that she would return his affection. “Please stay, or if you really want to go to Virginia, I’ll transfer down there.”

Olivia looked at him for a long minute as if she realized for the first time that he wasn’t joking. Up to that point, she always accepted Mark’s attentions as if it were a game that they played. I had to admit to myself that I thought the same way, but seeing Mark there covered in punch in front of all those guests, there was no question that he was earnest.

“I don’t love you,” she said. “I’m going to Virginia alone.”

Mark sucked in a breath as if he couldn’t get enough air. I was frozen with embarrassment. If the earth would have opened up at that moment, I would have willingly dove in.

Snickers and giggles coursed through the group.

“Your brother is such a freak,” one of my classmates whispered into my ear.

Mrs. Blocken shook with rage. “Get out, and stay away from my daughter.”

Mark kept his gaze fixed on Olivia.

“Leave,” Mrs. Blocken said.

A group of varsity jocks were quickly closing in on my brother. They would like nothing better than to throw a nerd like Mark over the Blockens’ fence.

Luckily, they didn’t get that chance because Olivia spoke first. “I don’t want you at my party, Mark. Go home.”

Tears welled up in his eyes, and he staggered away, back through the open gate.

Later, I found him curled in a ball in his apartment. I called my sister, and she took over with her usual efficiency, and, in the fall, I ran away to art school.