My laugh only serves to infuriate her further. I hold my hands up in a surrendering motion and wisely walk my ass backward out of the room, making a swift retreat to grab us some drinks before my best friend decides to go all Regan MacNeil on my ass. Still chuckling as I head downstairs to their kitchen, Evie yells out shrilly behind me.
“I can hear you laughing, Dacen! Knock it off!”
I swallow my laughter and head into the kitchen. When Evie reaches ear-splitting decibels, you know it’s time to throw in the towel and move on. Besides, we’re nearly ready for the dance and it’s almost time to leave.
* * *
About an hourlater we’re standing in the gym, loud music pumping from speakers around us. Trisley and Noah are rating everyone’s outfits on a scale from whatwere they thinkingtoomg I need that. Their words, not mine.
Makenna, a girl in some of Evie’s classes, glances around and smiles. “Dacen, y’all did such a great job on the decorations! It looks amazing here.”
“Thank you,” I respond on autopilot. I’m distracted. Ryne and his friends arrived a few minutes ago, looking off-the-charts hot, and camped out along the wall near the exit. They’re here, but for how long?
Someone steps up beside me and it’s a good thirty seconds before I notice they’re talking. A groan slips out when I realize it’s Jeremy, but thankfully he doesn’t hear me over the music. He doesn’t realize I haven’t heard a single word he’s said. He just talks, not waiting for a response. Evie catches my eye and rolls hers. I try to scoot closer to Trisley and Noah, hoping maybe Jeremy will either stop talking or start talking to someone else. He doesn’t catch on, and instead, I stand there and endure a mundane conversation about his Mustang. It doesn’t really even qualify as conversation because all he’s doing is talking at me.
My focus wanes and my attention wanders back over to Ryne. He’s propped against the wall between Evan and Roman with his arms crossed, shooting a death glare my way. I raise my eyebrows and he turns to whisper something in Roman’s ear. When Roman smirks and waves his fingers at me, a flush creeps up my neck and I frown. What was that all about? Turning my head, Jeremy’s monologue assaults my ears again.
He’s talking about some kind of wax for turtles or something. I have no idea. I can’t even pretend to listen now because I’m too irritated. Once again, Ryne is hot and cold. On and off. He has so many freaking shields I have no idea who I’m dealing with from one moment to the next.
Jeremy’s phone rings. He stops talking long enough to pull it from his pocket and glance at the screen. “I gotta take this. I’ll be back soon.”
Please don’t hurry back.
Evie slides up next to me now that Jeremy is gone and Makenna’s walked away.
“Thanks ever so much for the rescue, BFF of mine.” I give her a pointed stare.
She cringes and shrugs. “I love you but I can only tolerate so much Jeremy and he wasn’t shutting up.”
“At least he’s gone for a little while.” I roll my shoulders and stretch my spine. Anxiety from the constant uncertainty brews and bubbles just below the surface, and the near-deafening noise in here doesn’t help. It makes my muscles tense involuntarily, so once I actually relax them, like now that Jeremy’s walked away, the soreness sets in from having them clenched for so long.
Trisley and Noah turn toward us, and Noah steps closer to me and glances over my shoulder. “Wow. What crawled up their butts and died tonight? They look twice as annoyed as usual.”
Ryne and I lock eyes and he quickly turns away. I don’t tend to run high on the drama scale, but right now my loud, overly dramatic sigh seems warranted. Evie peers around my shoulder and snorts.
“Okay,” Trisley drawls out. “I get why Evan looks irritated. He always thinks someone is trying to encroach on his territory.” Evie protests loudly and Trisley grins. “Kidding. But not really kidding. Ryne and Roman always look like they’ve just sucked on a lemon, so nothing new there. I wonder why Tyler looks annoyed? He’s usually so chill.” She tilts her head to the side. “I sure wouldn’t mind being the reason he looks so jealous right now. Maybe I am, who knows, he keeps glancing over here.” She assesses him a moment longer. “I wonder what his problem is.”
Evie shrugs. “Maybe it’s a solidarity brood. You know, an 'all for brooding and brooding for all' kind of thing.”
I snort and try to cover it with a cough. “I don’t know what Tyler’s deal is, but I do think Ryne looks more irritated than usual. I don’t get it. It’s like he thinks being rude is the best way to hide any actual feelings? I don’t know.”
Noah and Trisley are up to speed on what’s been going on between Ryne and me. The three of them stare from him to me, also at a loss.
“It’s the best way to make himself look like a big jerk, is what it is.” Evie’s been frustrated and disgusted on my behalf, right along with me, and I love her for it.
“He does look really hot though, even if he is on my last nerve this evening. He’s kinda like a living, breathing, hotter version of Oscar the Grouch.”
Noah chokes on his sip of water. “Hotter? As in Oscar the Grouch has achieved some level of hotness?”
I wave my hand around airily. “You know what I mean.” I stretch my shoulders back again and glance around the crowded gym. My ears are ringing and my head has an echoey, floaty feeling. “I’ll be back in a few.” Evie puts her hand on my wrist and looks up at me. I lean in closer to her ear. “I need some air. I’ll be back in a little bit.”
“Okay, but if you’re not back in the next five to ten minutes I’m going to come hunt you down.”
“Deal.”
We fist bump and then I work my way through the crowd and slip out the gym door. Once I step into the hallway and the door shuts behind me, it’s much quieter and my nerves sigh in relief. I wander through the hallway and veer left around a corner that leads to the locker rooms. A large trophy case catches my attention and I pause in front of it. Some of this stuff is pretty old. Among the trophies and medals are photographs of the various sports teams, old and new. I sweep over them quickly until I find the soccer team photos from over the years.
When I get to a certain year it registers that one of the varsity player names listed is Ryden Sutton. My breath hitches and chills pebble down my arms. I already knew what he looked like, but all the photos I’ve seen were of him as an adult. Now that I know Ryne, thinking back to those photos, the resemblance between them is strong, but it’s nothing compared to this photo. Seventeen-year-old Ryden Sutton and seventeen-year-old Ryne Sutton could be twins. It’s chilling.
