I look over my shoulder to see if Jonah and Serena are nearby before I answer her. “I have no idea.”
“He basically had his hand on her tit, so I’m guessing yes.” Emma pulls her debit card out of her wallet and inserts it into the card reader. “Men. They’re ridiculous.”
“I love that you’re so pissed on my behalf, but I really don’t care who he’s with or what they’re doing.” And I mean it.
Really.
As a matter of fact, I’m evaluating my emotions right now after running into Jonah and Serena, and I’m realizing that…okay fine. It bothered me a tiny bit, seeing them together, hanging all over each other.
But not enough for me to want to cry or freak out.
She sends me a look that says, bullshit. “Please. He’s a dick who pushed you for sex and when you wouldn’t give it to him, ran right out and found someone else who would.”
Ouch. I mean, Emma isn’t wrong.
“He wasn’t the love of my life.” Emma gets out of my way, so I can scan my bags of chips. I wonder if Jonah and Serena thought I was going to eat all of these, when that was definitely not my plan. “It wasn’t that difficult to break up with him either.”
“You cried. A lot,” she reminds me. “So yeah, it was a little difficult.”
I pull out my debit card and pay for my items. “Whatever. I’m over it—and him—now.”
“Good.” She grins as I put away my wallet and then scoop up my bags of chips. “Let’s find you a new boy to focus on. Tonight.”
I slowly shake my head, both of us coming to a stop when we hear Tori yelling for us to wait for her. “No thanks, I’m not looking for a new boyfriend.”
Wouldn’t mind basking in Beck’s attention tonight, but he’ll probably be too busy with Sasha. Plus, since he’s hosting, everyone will want to talk to him. We’re seniors now, and he’s the big man on campus.
I’m sure plenty of people will be surrounding him tonight. I probably won’t even get a chance to get close enough to say hi.
“Oh, come on. It’s our last year in high school.” Emma turns to Tori as she approaches. “Don’t you want a boyfriend during our senior year?”
“Hell yes,” Tori says as we all start to head out of the store. “Isn’t that every seventeen-year-old girl’s dream? Cute boy on her arm for the entirety of senior year? Someone she can go to all the events with? Take photos with?”
Tori lives and dies by social media, so what she’s saying doesn’t surprise me at all. “I just want to have a fun senior year. If that involves a guy, cool. If it doesn’t, still cool.”
Emma and Tori send each other a knowing look as we approach my car.
“Whatever,” Emma says, rolling her eyes when I glance over at her. “Keep telling yourself that.”
I laugh, mentally brushing her words off. I’m not going to let her get me down, and I know that’s not her intention. She’s just watching out for me, and I appreciate that. “I just want to let loose and have fun tonight.”
“You have been working a lot this summer,” Emma points out.
“I know. And I don’t want to worry about how I look or what I say because that’s exactly what will happen if I try to talk to some random guy.” I unlock the doors with the keyless remote and slide into the driver’s seat. Emma takes the passenger seat and Tori is in the back.
The moment the doors are shut and I start the engine, Tori is clutching herself and giggling as she falls to the side.
“What’s your problem?” I ask her, our gazes connecting in the rearview mirror.
“Want to see what I picked up at the store?” she asks.
Emma turns to look at her. “You didn’t buy anything.”
“You’re right.” I see her giant smile in the rearview mirror. “I didn’t.”
A weird feeling settles over me and I pull out of the parking spot so fast, the tires squeal, making the girls squeal too. “Don’t tell me you stole something.”
“Okay fine. I didn’t.” Tori digs in her oversized bag, pulling out a bottle of cheap vodka. “I, uh…picked this up on the way out.”
“Oh my God!” Emma starts clapping, a giant smile on her face.
I groan. “You’re lucky you didn’t get busted.”
“No one was paying attention to me. It was so easy to just slip the bottle into my bag, I almost couldn’t believe it.” Tori shrugs. “At least we got something just for ourselves to party with tonight.”
“This is the cheap stuff,” Emma says, inspecting the bottle after Tori hands it over to her. “You could’ve at least got the more expensive kind. It goes down a lot smoother.”
“So picky. Be glad I got what I got,” Tori says, taking the bottle back from Emma with a faint glare. “You gonna drink tonight, Addie?”
Most of the time I don’t, especially lately. Volleyball practice is kicking my butt and the season hasn’t even officially started. Yet Tori and Emma show up at practice after a hard night partying always fresh and ready to play. Going to practice hungover sounds like a nightmare.
But thankfully I don’t have practice for the next two days. Partying in Bayshore means that most of us stay the night in our cars. Some people even bring tents. It’s the perfect way to stay safe, get drunk and not have to worry about driving until the next morning.
“Definitely,” I say with a nod and a grin, letting their mood carry me.
I pull into the parking lot of a shutdown restaurant, just outside of town, and change my clothes, pulling on a pair of black leggings that make my butt look good and my favorite hoodie I bought over on the coast a couple of summers ago. Then we’re on our way, ready to party.
We make the twisty drive up Bayshore Road, the music on full blast and the car windows down, since the mountain air gets cooler and cooler the farther up we go. We’re all singing along at the top of our lungs with the songs playing, and Tori already has the vodka bottle open, she and Emma taking swigs from it. I tell them to put the vodka away because I could totally get busted with an open container in the car, but they don’t listen to me.
Not like we pass many cars going up this road, so I guess we’re okay.
By the time we pull into the campsite, it’s fully dark and I can see the tiny flicker of a campfire in one of the designated spots. There’s a group of guys standing around it, all of them tall and broad, and I can only assume they’re members of the football team.
Wonder if Beck is with them.
“Hey, give me a drink,” I say to Tori before we get out of the car.
She hands over the bottle with a grin. “Be careful. It’s fiery.”
I take the bottle from her and sip from it, grimacing. Then I take a couple of swallows, earning cheers of encouragement from my friends.
“Look at you,” Emma says with admiration, when I hand the bottle over and wipe my mouth with the back of my other hand. “You’ll be drunk in no time.”
“That’s the goal,” I say with a faint smile, though I don’t want to get sloppy drunk. Just feel a pleasant buzz that’ll make it easier to witness Beck and Sasha together.