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“You looked like you were sleeping from where I’m standing. You went to bed early so it’s not like you should be tired. You haven’t been up late messaging or sexting with some guy without telling me, have you?” Big tough brother is on the lookout for the twin twinge, where we can’t hide anything from each other.
I’ve never prayed so hard in all my life for him to miss any movement in my expression.
“You’re the only one out at night getting any action. I’m the one tucked up in bed, sleeping.” I quickly pick up my bag and scramble toward the bus, so my back is to him.
“Where’s the fire, sleepyhead?” he calls out behind me.
“Don’t want to get stuck sitting with you. I know what you smell like after a game. Nobody deserves that punishment.” I take the first step onto the bus.
“Lucky Jordan loves me then, isn’t it!” he yells as he gets closer to me.
“Yeah, lucky you,” I mumble as I make my way to my seat next to Selena. I notice Jordan isn’t in his seat yet.
Putting my bag up in the roof rack, I see Jordan out the window, jogging across the parking lot, hair wet and hanging all over his face.
I’m guessing he was last in the shower.
As I sit in my seat, he comes running up the stairs of the bus with Coach following him. The door closes behind them and the rumble of the engine starts. Placing my head back on the seat, I’m glad to be heading home.
At least I have the bus ride to pull myself together before the party tonight.
I’ve got a feeling it will be a night of pure torture.
Especially if Jocelyn gets her way.
There is one thing I know for sure, and that is I’m not hanging around to watch that play out.
* * *
How long do you have to stay at a party before you can slip out and no one will notice you’re gone?
I should have gone with the “feeling sick” excuse.
At eighteen years of age, we might not be legally allowed to drink, but that doesn’t stop half the people here, Xavier included. He isn’t drunk, but I know he won’t be my ride home tonight. I mean, I could just take the car, but that doesn’t leave him anywhere to sleep off the drinks tonight before he comes crawling home in the morning. We share an old Volvo station wagon which used to be Mom and Dad’s. It’s not a cool car but gets us from A to B and is handy to put the seats down and sleep in the back.
Well, for Xavier, anyway. I don’t want to know the number of girls he has had in there, which is why I choose never to sleep in there or sit on the back seat. Ugghhh!
It’s that time of the night, where everyone seems to start pairing up and the number of people sitting around the fire is starting to dwindle.
That’s my cue to get out of here. Having already messaged Mom to pick me up, I walk through the cars and trucks toward the road. I’ll walk a little way down and then call Mom to see how close she is. She’s always cool about parties, and she never gets mad, telling me to call her no matter what time of day or night and she will come and get me, no questions asked.
Voices start to fade away and the light from the fire is getting dimmer as I reach the outskirts of the cars.
I’m almost free when I hear footsteps behind me.
Hair on the back of my neck stands up with nerves as to who could be following me. I walk a little quicker now to get to the road and the streetlights.
“Nat, wait up, it’s me. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” Jordan’s voice calms me instantly, but then starts my heart racing for a whole different reason.
“What the hell, Jordan, I almost died hearing your footsteps behind me.” I stop as he comes up closer.
“Well, it’s good punishment for being stupid. Why in God’s name are you walking off into the dark on your own? Where’s Xavier?”
“Where do you think? He probably has his tongue down Selena’s throat. She has been eyeing him all day,” I snap at him.
To be honest, I’m over this senior year. Since when did your last year of high school become about how many people you can sleep with?
I know I’m a prude, but it’s just not my scene.
