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“Shit,” I sigh.
Nate squeezes me and bends his head to mine. “What’s wrong?” I nod towards Brooke and he follows my gaze. “Fuck,” he grunts, dropping his arms from around me. “I’m going to kick his fucking ass.”
“You and me both,” I seethe.
“Go cheer her up. I’ll go find him.”
“Are you sure?” I question, hating that we’re going to ruin this special moment.
He puts his hand against my cheek and leans in, giving me the softest kiss. “Yeah, go,” he tells me. “I’ll make it up to you later.”
I give him a grateful smile and turn away as he does the same. I make my way over to Brooke and wrap her in my arms as we both look up at the colorful sky. “You ok?” I murmur.
I feel her shoulders bounce up and down. “I don’t know,” she says. “I had this big plan to kiss him at midnight and watch the fireworks together, you know like you and Nate were doing, but I guess that’s not going to happen.”
“It ok,” I tell her. “I can kiss you if you’d like?”
A small smile plays on her lips as she continues watching the show. “With all his secrets and lies, I convinced myself that maybe he was organizing some kind of surprise for Christmas, but when that didn’t happen, I thought there was still New Year’s. Joke’s on me, right?”
She lets out a sigh and drops her head to my shoulder. “Don’t,” I tell her. “Have you actually talked to him?”
She shakes her head.
“Well, maybe something’s going on with him. You know, something he doesn’t want to share just yet.”
“Come on, Tora,” she scoffs. “You can’t possibly believe that, right? This is Maxen we’re talking about. I knew what kind of guy he was when we first got together. You were the one who kept reminding me, remember?”
“I know,” I sigh, remembering how, before Brooke, he was a bigger player than Jesse. “I’m still rooting for him. You two are so good together.”
“Yeah,” she scoffs. “I think so too.” I hold onto her a little tighter, hating that she’s feeling so down, but there’s not a lot I can do to take her pain away. Brooke lets out a deep sigh. “I think I’ll go find him. Get it over and done with, then I’m going to go home.”
“What?” I shriek in outrage. “No, you’re not. You’re going to come over to the drinks table with me, we’re going to make it our bitch, and then we’re going to find the girls and shake our asses. It’s New Year’s. I refuse to let you start your year by breaking up with your boyfriend. You can do that once your killer hangover wears off next month.”
She gives me a look as if to say ‘no way in hell,’ but I’m not taking no for an answer. I take her hand and drag her along behind me. We make our way through the crowded bodies of nearly every junior and senior from Broken Hill High and probably all of them from Haven Falls Private as well, though, I haven’t seen Josh Henderson so I can add that to the list of bonuses tonight.
I detour around to the girls and grab Courtney by the wrist who grabs Brylee. Soon enough, we find Elle hooking up with Tyson by one of the many bonfires and we collect her too.
I stand before the drinks table and line up the shots. “Alright, ladies,” I announce. “Let’s bring this New Year in right.”
“Hell yeah,” Brylee cheers
“I’m down for that,” Elle laughs as she picks up her shot.
Brooke lets out a groan. “Fine.”
Courtney doesn’t say anything. Her shot is already gone and she’s holding her glass out for another.
We play catch up and the fireworks quickly fade into the background. Between the five of us, the bottle disappears pretty damn fast and before we know it, the fireworks are finished and we’re barging our way onto the dance floor.
Courtney screams out her favorite song to the DJ and he happily puts it on.
We start dancing and by the look on Brooke’s face, the alcohol is pulsing through her system and she’s completely forgotten about how shitty her night could have been.
At two in the morning, the girls and I collapse down into the grass right at the back of the property, far away from the prying eyes. “I can’t believe we have to go back to school,” Courtney whines as I start to feel the cold seeping into my bones.
“I know,” I agree. “At least my suspension is over. I can go back to actually sitting among human beings.”
“Yeah,” she giggles. “I was enjoying spending every day with Puck.”
Brylee scoffs. “Yeah, I noticed. Thanks for that by the way.”
Any other day, I’d feel sorry for the poor thing, yet with the alcohol running through my system, I burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter. “Shit, I’m sorry,” I tell Brylee. “I really shouldn’t be laughing at that.”
