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“You coming?” he asked.
I glanced toward the bonfire and immediately caught sight of Brent. He was waving his arms in the air like Superman, and I could see his grin from here. I couldn’t chicken out, not now. I needed to man up and just deal.
I put my game face on and followed Nate toward the bonfire.
The night was warm and pretty muggy, but it was the kind of night that I loved. The sky was bright, lit to the heavens with stars, and the air felt alive, full of possibilities.
It took a while, but eventually I relaxed a bit, mostly because Nate, Brent, and I were treated like gold. Everyone was in a good mood and the atmosphere was chill. One of the guys on the football team had speakers set up on the back of his truck, and an odd mixture of country and rock filled the air. This was my scene, and it had been too long.
Jackson Byers, a guy from school, had the balls to ask me about what had happened at the library. Said he’d heard that I’d been taken to the hospital in an ambulance. I told him it was an exaggeration. He didn’t give up.
“But dude, an ambulance?”
“Do I look like there’s something wrong with me?” I stared him down, flexing my fists as I did so.
“Nah. You look as badass as ever.”
Someone offered me a beer, but I shook my head, and after it happened the second time, I grabbed a can so I could have something to hold and ward off any more offers.
I was getting into some vintage Green Day—“Jesus of Suburbia” is epic—when someone nudged my hip and two warm arms slid around me from behind. My first thought was Everly, which was crazy. The girl had pretty much blown me off today. Whoever it was giggled and stumbled into me, obviously loaded.
“I’ve mad at chu.”
Ah. Jess.
She circled around so that she was in front of me, though her arms were still wrapped around my waist. “I’ve been texting you all week about this party.”
Any other time, I would have been all over this. Jess was cute, nice, and obviously ready to party. But these days, Everly Jenkins was the only girl I was interested in, and even though I wasn’t sure she was interested back, I wasn’t going to take what Jess was offering.
I wasn’t that guy anymore, which maybe should have surprised me. I’m damn sure it would have surprised half the guys I knew. I was single, so it’s not like I was cheating on anyone. And let’s be serious. Guys our age think about sex all the time, and to say otherwise is an outright lie.
But Jess wasn’t Everly. End of story.
“Sorry, been busy.”
She pouted, hands falling to my hips, which was awkward because now parts of us that shouldn’t be touching were touching.
“Whoa,” I said, trying to disengage, but the girl had talons for fingers and she was dug in but good.
“I’m glad you came,” she said, talking real slow, drawing out each syllable in what I called alcohol speak.
I looked around. Where the hell was everyone? I spotted Nate by the fire, picking up an acoustic and strumming a few chords for his girl. Brent was close by, chatting up the Murdock twins, which wasn’t surprising. Other than Caleb Martin, Brent was the biggest player this side of the Mason-Dixon line.
And Link…
My stomach did that weird tumble again, and I carefully picked Jess’s claws from my hips as I stared across the clearing. Link sat on a log beside the fire with Hailey on his lap, and a few feet from them was Everly.
She was nodding to the guy beside h
er, and he was leaning down, so close that I didn’t have to see his face to know exactly what he was thinking. And it wasn’t how awesome she smelled, though I’m sure he’d noticed that. It wasn’t how nice her hair looked either or how shiny her eyes were.
The guy was looking to score, and who could blame him?
His hand was at the small of her back, and from my vantage point, I saw a whole lot of skin on display. Soft skin. Soft skin that he shouldn’t be touching. I wanted to smash my fist into his face. Total Neanderthal move on my part, but there you have it. At the moment it appeared that I was a knucklehead.
“Trevor, hello! I’m right here.”
I pulled back from Jess and finally got her hands off me. “Look, Jess, I’m sorry. This…us…it’s not gonna happen.”
