Only If You're Lucky

Some time after the events of the Prologue, Detective Frank is interrogating Margot, Sloane, and Nicole. He asks them when they last saw Lucy. Margot says that they saw her three days ago, and Frank notes that Lucy missed work and class. Nicole tells him that isn’t unusual for Lucy, and Sloane suggests that she probably went out of town with a man for the weekend. She urges Frank to find Lucy and get her to pay her rent. Frank asks if Lucy was acting strangely when they last saw her, and Margot lies, saying she was acting normal. Frank tells them that he questioned Lucy before about Levi Butler’s murder, and the women are surprised.

On Margot’s first night in Hines Hall at Rutledge College, the only dormitory just for women, after the resident assistant outlines the dorm’s rules, Lucy opens a case of beer, inviting everyone to drink. Lucy exudes confidence, drinking in the shower and walking around nude. On campus, Margot’s roommate, Maggie, doesn’t understand why Lucy captivates so many people, and Margot admires Lucy’s blue eyes as she suntans. Margot notices Sloane Peters and Nicole Clausen starting to hang around with Lucy more often. When Maggie leaves, Lucy makes eye contact with Margot and waves to her.

Margot considers going to eat with Maggie but resolves to stay in her room. She reflects on how eager Maggie was to become friends when they moved in together, paired by a questionnaire through the college, but that eagerness repulsed Margot. Margot intended to live with Eliza, her best friend from home, in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Margot and Eliza were best friends their entire lives, but Eliza died three weeks after high school ended. Margot’s parents didn’t want her to go to Rutledge, in South Carolina, but Eliza insisted, and Margot resents Maggie for being someone other than Eliza.

Lucy comes to Margot’s door, and Margot notices her necklace, which looks like a constellation of stars. Lucy asks if Margot has a place to stay over the summer, and Margot recalls that Maggie got them a place. Margot didn’t sign the lease for Maggie’s place, though, and Lucy decides that she and Margot will live together.

Margot arrives at the house that Lucy, Nicole, and Sloane share, noting its shabby appearance. She remembers asking Lucy why she chose her to live with them, and they both realized that they don’t know each other. Margot told Maggie one week earlier that she wouldn’t live with Maggie over the summer, and their relationship became strained. Margot feels bad for rejecting Maggie’s friendship, considering that Maggie helped Margot avoid self-destructive thoughts and depressive behavior over the past year. However, Margot thinks that living with Lucy will provide the excitement she needs to overcome her grief from Eliza’s death.

When Margot knocks on the door, a man answers, asking who she is. Margot panics, thinking Lucy played a prank on her, but Lucy comes to the door, introducing the man as Trevor, Nicole’s boyfriend. Inside, Margot notices that the house is messy. Nicole and Sloane live on the second floor, while Lucy and Margot will live on the first floor. Margot secured the money for rent by telling her parents that she made lifelong friends, and she thinks the house is perfect.

Margot unpacks her belongings in her new room, looking over two pictures of her and Eliza. In one, taken when they were freshmen in high school, they’re vibrant and happy. In the other, their smiles are rigid, and Margot recalls the arguments they had as high school progressed. While Margot was happy to continue their childhood traditions of sleepovers and trips to the convenience store, Eliza began wanting to party, meet other people, and go out more often. Margot concludes that she needed Eliza more than Eliza needed her, reflecting on how her identity was rooted in being Eliza’s best friend, and hopes that Lucy can replace Eliza, giving her a new identity and helping her overcome her grief.

After Detective Frank leaves, Margot goes to her room and looks at a picture of herself, Nicole, Sloane, and Lucy, noting how healthy they looked in their first months together. Margot retrieves Lucy’s phone from a drawer. The police will eventually track it, at which point she’ll hide it under Lucy’s bed. Margot, Sloane, and Nicole helped Lucy disappear, giving her an ID and some money but keeping her phone to prevent her from being tracked. As the investigation into Lucy continues, Margot, Sloane, and Nicole intend to erase themselves from her story. Margot recalls how Lucy taught her about constellations, and she thinks that Lucy is looking at them now. Levi Butler is dead, and Margot nervously notes that he spent his last few hours with Lucy.

Lucy introduces Margot to Nicole and Sloane, who seem skeptical, saying that they don’t recall Margot living on their floor of Hines Hall. Margot is hurt, and Lucy asks her to tell them about herself. She tells them that she is an English major, and Lucy cuts her off, saying that her major isn’t who she is. Nicole asks why Margot came to Rutledge, but Margot isn’t comfortable telling them about Eliza, so she lies, saying it was to get away from home. Lucy explains that the house is owned by the Kappa Nu fraternity and that Trevor is the president. They joke about Nicole’s relationship with him, and Lucy comments on his attractiveness, including Margot in the conversation by noting their meeting that morning.

Sloane shows Margot through the house. Sloane’s room is filled with study materials, while Nicole’s is full of clothes and makeup. Lucy suspiciously passes over her own room. Sloane takes Margot to meet the fraternity men, and they pass through a shed filled with drying tobacco leaves, which disturbs Margot. Sloane asks why Margot is moving in with them, wondering how Margot and Lucy met. Margot explains that they never formally met, and Sloane calls Margot “vanilla,” warning her that Lucy is a pathological liar and will try to mold Margot into someone else if Margot lets her. Margot defends Lucy, asking why Sloane is Lucy’s friend, and Sloane says that Lucy is fun. In addition, Sloane admits that she fears what might happen if she stopped being friends with Lucy. Margot realizes how Eliza shaped her identity, and she wants Lucy to do the same.

Sloane takes Margot to the Kappa Nu house, where a dozen men are playing beer pong. One of them, Lucas, greets Sloane, and Sloane introduces Margot. Lucas asks Sloane and Margot to play, and Margot agrees, hoping to impress Sloane. Margot tells them that she’s from the Outer Banks, and Trevor notes that a new pledge is also from there. They play for a while, and Sloane and Margot drink but don’t talk much. A new group of men arrives with more beer and liquor. Margot realizes that she’s drunk, and Trevor locates the pledge from the Outer Banks, Levi Butler. Margot is shocked to see Levi, the only person who could have saved Eliza.

Margot remembers meeting Levi while she and Eliza lounged on a floating dock outside Eliza’s home. Margot describes how her mother and father were rigid people, her mother a dedicated socialite and her father absorbed in his finance business. Eliza’s parents, the Jeffersons, were the opposite: Her father was a former musician, and both her parents were fun-loving and goofy. Margot envied Eliza’s life and still resents her own parents. When the house next to Eliza’s was sold, Eliza and Margot feared that new neighbors might intrude on their lives. When they saw a boy walking down the beach, they hid underneath the floating dock. The boy, Levi, walked onto the dock, smoking a cigarette, oblivious to the two girls below.

Margot asks what Levi is doing at Rutledge, and he responds that he lives here, which Trevor takes as a commitment to Kappa Nu. Levi’s presence conjures an image of Eliza smoking cannabis, her neck kinked at an odd angle. Margot suspects that, if Eliza were alive, she would have befriended Lucy before Margot could, and she might have left Margot the way Margot left Maggie. Margot remembers how Levi saw her as an impediment to his relationship with Eliza, noting that he never cared about Margot. Margot tells Sloane that she’s going home to unpack, and Levi tells her to wait. Margot leaves, thinking that Levi won’t come after her; he’ll do what he wants without regard for her feelings.

Margot lies down on her bed but quickly realizes that Lucy is in the room with her. Lucy asks who the girl in Margot’s picture is, and Margot is unsure whether to tell her about Eliza. Sloane enters and asks why Margot left and who Levi is. Nicole enters behind Sloane, and Margot realizes that she needs to tell them something about herself, noting that friendships are founded on shared experiences and traumas. Without realizing it, Margot starts to cry, and the three women comfort her, assuring her that they’re her friends.

Sloane enters Margot’s room with Nicole behind her and tells Margot that it will work. Margot puts Lucy’s phone away, wondering if Lucy’s mother misses her and thinking about how quickly her own parents would act if she went missing. Sloane comments that Levi’s parents are filing a lawsuit against Kappa Nu for wrongful death, and Margot considers who may be to blame for Levi’s death. Everyone was drunk when he died, and they were all underage. Margot criticizes the fraternity men, noting how they treated women like property and asserting that they deserve to be punished. Margot remembers the night Levi died, when he wandered, drunk, into the cattails with Lucy following him.