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After changing into my pajamas, I take a seat cross-legged on the bed. McKenzie is still settled on the couch, busy on her phone.
I pick up the remote and start flipping through the channels. It’s mostly news and sports. I stop on an action thriller with an actor who looks familiar, but it’s halfway through and the plot is hard to follow. At least the gunfire and explosions keep the room from total silence.
I’m barely paying attention to the movie when there’s a knock on the door. McKenzie stands and walks over to open it.
Grace is standing in the doorway. She’s wearing a low-cut top and tight jeans, her blonde hair curled and her makeup flawlessly applied. “You ready?”
“Yeah, I, um, I thought we were meeting at the elevators?”
Grace spots me. Her expression flares with surprise. Obviously, her best friend didn’t mention she was rooming with me. “I got bored,” she tells McKenzie. “London fell asleep.”
I already knew London was staying with Grace. She mentioned it when we were hanging out earlier.
There’s nothing malicious about Grace’s words themselves, but there’s a superiority seeped into her tone. Some judgment of London that seems like it’s really a slight at me.
It’s lingered in her voice every time she’s ever spoken to me, and I’ve never understood it. Her fake niceness is like an artificial sweetener. She’s insistent on acting nice toward me but wants me to know it’s not genuine. I suspect Holden has something to do with it. Gracedidgo to middle school with us. She knows we were once friends.
I raise a hand in a small wave. “Hi, Grace.”
“Hi, Cassia,” she replies, looking me and my pajamas over. “You look…cozy.”
I smile, the expression tight.
Grace glances at McKenzie. “You have the tequila?”
“Yeah.” McKenzie walks over to her suitcase and pulls a glass bottle out. I avert my gaze back to the television.
A male voice draws my attention to the doorway again. “Come on. You ladies ready to…” Finn’s voice trails when he sees me. “Cassia. Hey.”
I raise a brow. “Hey, Finn.”
Finn and Mark, Holden’s two closest friends, used to be guys I considered friends as well. Up until Holden stopped inviting me to hang out—with them, at all.
I wonder if Holden gave them a reason for distancing from me. I’m guessing not. He’s not the type to explain himself. And he was the common thread—the reason I was friendly with either of them in the first place. I’ve barely spoken to Finn since we started high school.
Finn takes a few steps into the room, acting like that’s not the case at all. “Whatcha watching?”
I shrug, since I’m not really sure. Finn seems to recognize the movie, though, because his eyes light up with excitement as he studies the motorcycle chase taking place on the screen. “Oh! I love this part.”
Well, that makes one of us.
“Finn!” Grace snaps. “Let’s go.”
She and McKenzie are waiting in the doorway. Impatience radiates from Grace. I’m surprised she’s not tapping her foot.
He jerks his attention away from the television, aiming it at me instead. “Wanna come, Cas?”
I’m shocked, both by the casual use of the nickname and the invitation itself. Questions fly to the tip of my tongue.
Why is he inviting me?
What are they doing?
Will Holden be there?
I swallow them all, forcibly. It’s after curfew. Whatever they’re doing, it’s not school-sanctioned. If I decline, I know exactly how this night will end. And for once, that bothers me. I’m a couple hundred miles from Pembrooke. If I stay out late, I won’t have to worry about my parents noticing.
So I nod and stand. “Sure.”
