Audrey's sitting with Brooke by a fire pit in the Maddoxes' absurdly over-decorated backyard, watching as Jake makes out with this random girl and Brooke slowly loses her mind over it. While Audrey's unsurprised by the former, she has to admit she's a tad disappointed by the latter. Honestly, she thought Brooke was smarter than that.

"First he spies on me, then he shows up with her. She's literally dumb as toast," Brooke says a little helplessly, a little hysterically, and Audrey's not sure she's heard that particular simile before but she has to say, she kinda likes it.

It fits, is the best part: The girl is blonde and leggy and probably met Jake five minutes earlier but is too dumb or drunk or both to care. Come to think of it, she's basically who Audrey thought Brooke was until they sorta got to know each other. Not that they're, like, friends or anything, but since Audrey's talking to Emma again, Brooke's been, you know, around, and it turns out she's not quite as one-dimensional as she seemed.

Audrey's actually weirdly fascinated by how Brooke's trying to fill the soulless power vacuum left at the top of the school's social hierarchy after Nina's death, how she's sharpening her curves and brandishing her edges. She's not Nina, though. She has too much humanity to be Nina, and the way she kinda let her guard down tonight proves that - especially with Audrey, of all people. Earlier, Brooke had said something about how Audrey was her favorite person at the party, what with Jake being a douche, Emma being a flake and the rest of her friends having shuffled off this mortal coil. Audrey had played it off like it was nothing and tried to ignore the flutter in her chest.

"Brooke, it's obvious he has nothing for her except the rise it gets out of you," Audrey says finally. Watching Brooke get all angsty over this asshole is kind of harshing the buzz she and those beers worked so hard for.

"Yeah, well, I've been known to make things rise myself," Brooke says smoothly, suddenly oozing confidence as she surveys her backyard and the people in it. It's like she flipped a switch and now she's back to Ice Queen. She stands up decisively and points. "Hey, Board Shorts."

A kid wearing... well, yeah, board shorts… turns around like he's not quite sure whether Brooke means his board shorts, and Audrey really can't let her do this. In five seconds, Brooke's tongue will be in that kid's mouth, and who knows how long ago he last brushed?

"Hey," Audrey says low in her throat, so Board Shorts can't hear her but Brooke can. "You realize if Jake gets a girl and you get a guy, you're even?"

"That's the plan," Brooke hisses impatiently, as if Audrey's keeping her from some pressing engagement. She doesn't get it; not yet.

Audrey tilts her head. "You get a girl, you win."

"Where am -" Brooke cuts herself off, and Audrey can see realization dawning. "You?"

Audrey shrugs and Brooke narrows her eyes, which makes Audrey feel as if she's being sized up at a meat market. Finally, the other girl blinks.

"Fine," Brooke acquiesces unemotionally before leaning down and pressing her lips to Audrey's.

All at once, the flutter Audrey felt earlier grows feathers and takes flight, the beat of its wings loudly matching the rhythm of her heart. She stutters a breath against Brooke's mouth, reeling as if her body had forgotten she'd invited the kiss in the first place. Brooke's lips are sticky-sweet like candy, like she'd applied three too many coats of flavored lip gloss and added another for good measure, but Audrey can't find it in herself to care. When Brooke slips her tongue into Audrey's mouth, Audrey grabs her hip, thumbing firmly at the sliver of exposed skin and feeling triumphant that Brooke gasps at the contact.

As Brooke pulls away, Audrey's vaguely aware of someone whistling in the background - it's a guy's whistle, a catcall, and she's gotta say she's not shocked by it. She and Brooke lock eyes for a couple of seconds, the other girl's expression unreadable, and then Brooke paints a self-satisfied smirk on her face that's about as subtle as her lip gloss.

"Enjoy the show, boys?" she asks the small congregation of guys who are either floating transfixedly in her pool or straight-up frozen in the middle of her backyard, staring with their mouths open. (Normally, Audrey would find Jake's face hilarious, but she's too busy trying to slow her hammering heartbeat.)

Brooke straightens up like nothing happened, ignores Jake entirely and tells Audrey, "Do me a solid: Do not let the unwashed masses into this house."

Audrey offers a salute, her relaxed smile diametrically at odds with the soaring feeling in her chest and the thousand tiny fireworks exploding at the end of each and every synapse.

"Aye-aye, Captain," she says languidly.

Brooke shoots her a grin and turns on her heels, heading toward one of the Maddox mansion's many doors. Audrey can't resist following the other girl with her eyes for a moment, the heat of Jake's gaze boring into the back of her head. When she finally turns away, it's with a smirk of her own and another swig of beer.