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It's bullshit. All of it.
But as the days pass, I even begin to see some of the same excitement bleeding into my home.
Ellen's cookies suddenly turn into heart shapes, and even Cole knocks on my door to ask my opinion on what he should get for Hadley.
"You're fucking with me, right?" I ask him as he holds out two images.
"No, I can't decide. Red or black."
"It's fucked up that you think it's okay to let me choose Hads’ sex clothes," I mutter, my eyes scanning the sexy lace outfits on the pages before me and imagining what Kenny might look like in them.
"You're right. I should just get both. One for Valentine's Eve and one for the actual day."
"What have you done with my asshole brother who doesn't give a shit about anything or anyone?"
"Got hit by Cupid's arrow, man. You know how it is." The look on my face must say everything, because he winces. "Sorry. I didn't mean—"
"It's fine. Just fuck off out of my room."
He nods and does as I suggest, leaving me with my fucking heart-shaped cookies.
Resting back in my seat, I think about the party that I know will be thrown down on the beach in the Heights tomorrow night.
While the Sterling Prep kids are planning a night full of love and happily ever afters, the Heights kids are preparing for their annual anti-Valentine's Day of debauchery.
I need to be there. I need to see her.
Levi messages every day to assure me that she's okay, but no matter how many times he tells me that, the ball of dread only ever gets bigger in my stomach.
Friday night was fucked up, and I have no reason to believe that it's going to get better anytime soon.
Smoke bellows from the huge bonfire on the sand as I drive toward the beach. Both Levi and Jay told me not to come tonight. They both know what kind of shit is likely to go down, and while I might agree that I probably don't need to witness it with my own eyes, there’s no fucking way I'm sitting at home and waiting for one of their phone calls to come so I can rescue her again.
I want to be right here waiting.
I leave my car in a secluded, tree-covered lane at the other end of the beach. The woodland between here and where the party is being held is the perfect hiding spot.
Checking my cell one more time, I climb from the car, but still, there's nothing from her.
Anger swirls around me like a firestorm that she can't so much as reply with a simple 'I'm okay.' I'm fucking dying inside, not knowing what's happening to her on a daily basis. Doesn't she fucking know that?
By the time I get to a clearing that gives me the perfect view of the beach below, the party is in full swing. Music booms from a huge pair of speakers that have been set up and the bonfire roars high into the inky night sky.
There are kids dancing, drinking, making out everywhere, but for the longest time, I don't see the one person I came for.
I start to think that Levi and Jay were wrong and that she's not going to be here, but about the same time I'm getting fed up with waiting, a couple appears from one of the dunes.
It might be dark and I might not be able to make out any of their features, but I know it's her the second she emerges. Every single cell in my body knows. The tether that has always been between us pulls tightly.
She looks up and scans the party before her, almost as if she feels the same pull to me, but her eyes never find mine.
My heart sinks with the thought that he might have finally broken her, that he's somehow been able to sever the connection the two of us have with his quick fists and even harsher words.
Anger trickles through me as my fists curl with the burning need to go down there and throw his piece of shit, worthless body right in the center of the fire and watch him committed to hell where he belongs.
My cell vibrates in my pocket, but I can't risk pulling it out and alerting anyone to my hiding place.
I know it's not Kennedy; she's standing right in front of me without a cell in her hand. Anyone else is going to have to wait.
