She could've admitted that this was her first time. People either made a big deal about how they were smoking their first cigarette, or lied that they had smoked before.
She took the second path. Not saying it explicitly, but instead brushing it off.
She felt young at that party. Mostly juniors and some seniors. She wasn't used to this crowd. Last year she had gone to an after party with parents as chaperones and definitely no booze. On Monday she heard of the other after parties. The drinking, the weed, some people having sex afterwards. She vowed that she would never be stuck at a lame after party again.
The weeks leading up to
homecoming
, all
Imogen Howe
thought about was who she would go with. Not the guy, but what group. That would dictate what party she would end up afterwards. She was nervous. Her freshmen friends were expecting her to go with them. She had began talking with a new group of cooler friends. They hadn't invited her explicitly yet, but it seemed like they were just assuming she would go.
Imogen hadn't told her old friends yet. She was still closer to them because she had known them longer. But she didn't want to go to the dance together. Her conscious knew she should've said this right out from the start, but she didn't have the guts. Kept talking for weeks with them like she would go with them "just like last year". They would smile and laugh. It was funny to Imogen that her friends thought last year was so fun.