“Free ass is great and all, but she’ll give you more than that, and you know what we’re talking about,” Caleb says, his expression serious for once. “She’s brought you nothing but heartbreak.”
Like these guys care if my heart’s broken or not. I crack open the can of beer and drain half of it in a couple of swallows. “Find me someone else then.”
I don’t mean it. I’m not interested in anyone else. Not really. Cami is easy. And I’m not meaning it in that way. More that we’re familiar with each other. She’s not a challenge. She knows what I’m about, and I know what she’s about.
“We already tried and then you shot us down, remember? Speaking of that…” Diego glances around the backyard, and I realize even more people have showed up in the last few minutes. Pretty sure I see a group of guys from the opposing team standing in a circle nearby—what the hell—and I know for a fact their cheer team is here. They’re wandering around Tony’s house still in their uniforms, flirting with all the guys. “Pretty sure I just saw the chick who turned you down cold yesterday.”
“Wait a minute. She’s here?” Caleb asks, just before he starts laughing. “Get the fuck out.”
“Maybe she’s looking for you,” Diego says, pointing at me. “You should go find her. Chat her up. She’s got dick-sucking lips—maybe she’ll give you a blow job.”
“Please. You guys are so full of shit,” I mutter, finishing off the beer and crumpling the can in my fist before I let it drop on the grass. “Why would she come to Tony’s? She doesn’t hang out with us.”
“Nah, I’m serious. She’s actually here, with that tall girl who dances. Sophia?” Diego frowns.
“Sophie,” I correct. I know of her. Super tall. Kind of awkward. Pretty blonde hair.
So not my type.
“Yeah, and the tall girl was talking to Tony. I just saw them together,” Diego adds. “Ol’ What’s Her Name was tagging along like the good third wheel she is.”
I love my friends, but sometimes they’re total assholes. Which I guess works because sometimes I’m a total asshole too.
“Fuck that chick.” I said exactly that the last time we talked about her. “She turned me down flat. She can go play with one of her loser friends.”
It’s the beer talking. I know it is. The last one I just drained is my third. No way can I drive home. And if I showed up with beer on my breath? Forget it. Dad will kill me. Hope Tony doesn’t mind if I stay the night. That’s our usual agreement, so I’m sure he won’t care.
“She’s one of those nobodies who hangs out with Marty, but I doubt he lets her play with him, if you know what I mean,” Diego says just before he cracks up.
See? Total assholes. Diego doesn’t like his cousin. Marty is completely harmless, and we’ve always gotten along. I wasn’t a part of that middle school attack Diego led against Marty back in the day, and I’m glad for it. But Diego has complained before that his mom always compares him to Marty when it comes to grades—and Diego doesn’t measure up. Marty is extremely smart. He’ll go to a good college, and he’ll end up with a respectable career someday that’ll make his family proud.
The only thing Diego cares about is football, and I don’t think it’ll take him beyond college. His family knows this. It’s like no matter what Diego does, it doesn’t measure up to Marty’s brain. And that has to be frustrating.
“I’m out of here.” I struggle to get off the lounger, my body sore, but my mind is on Cami. I need to go find her, sneak her into a dark room, and have my way with her. I’m over this talking shit business with my friends.
I need to let off some steam.
They call after me as I walk away, making their usual annoying comments, but I ignore them, heading toward the house. Lots of people say my name when they spot me, and I smile and nod at all of them, like I’m a freaking politician. A few of them clap me on the back and say good job. Most of them give me a high five as I walk past.
It feels good, knowing I have everyone’s respect. Makes me excited to play next week’s game.
I spot Tony standing near the back door of his house, talking with Sophie and that Hannah chick on the patio. They don’t even notice my approach and I decide to leave them be. No need to engage in conversation with a girl who hates me.
The moment I have that thought, her head turns, and her gaze locks with mine. I come to a stop, staring at her like an idiot. She looks…different tonight. Her hair is wavy, and it looks like she’s got gloss or something on her full lips—her dick-sucking lips, as Diego called them—making them shiny. She looks…
Pretty.
The moment feels like an eternity, but we study each other probably for only ten seconds, tops. She looks away, returning her attention to her friend and mine, and the moment is broken. Gone.
Like it never happened.
Ignoring the weird twisting feeling inside of me, I enter the house, in search of Cami. And just like she said I would, I find her, holding court in Tony’s family room sitting in a giant chair, surrounded by her friends sitting on the floor, most of them girls on the cheer team. My sister isn’t with them.
In fact…is my sister even here? At Tony’s? I whip out my phone and text her.
You’re at home, right?
No response. Not even the gray bubble with the three dots appears.
I’m overprotective of Ava, even though she’s a little social justice warrior. That’s what Mom calls her and it fits. She’s always advocating for the underdog. I don’t want her anywhere near my friends, and they know it. They’re all selfish assholes.
Most guys are.
“Jakey! There you are!” Cami yells, and I wince. Jakey? That sucks. “I knew you’d find me.”
I watch her for a moment as she plays queen bee among her friends, smiling and preening and basically telling them how to feel as they gossip about other girls from our school. My older sister Autumn was one of the cheer captains her senior year, and she wasn’t a bossy bitch like Cami. Yeah, Autumn had to get stern with them sometimes, she told me, but for the most part, she was fair. And she got along with the entire team for the most part.
She was just a bossy bitch to me and Ava at home.
My phone dings, and I check it to see a response from Ava.
I’m with my friends.
Which friends? I’m looking at the entire cheer team right now, minus you. I hit send.
My actual REAL friends. I’m at Ellie’s house. Chill.
I shove my phone back into my pocket, deciding not to respond. Ellie is Ava’s best friend, and I’m guessing my sister is probably spending the night. I don’t have to stress about her being at this party, or my friends trying to get with her. Plus, I don’t have to worry about her ratting me out to Mom and Dad for drinking.
Though I’ve got shit on Ava too, so we have an understanding, if you get what I mean.
“Cam,” I call. When she glances up at me, I flick my chin at her. “Let’s go.”
She frowns, her expression full-on irritated. “Where?”
“Just come on.” Do I have to spell it out for her?
She gets out of her chair—it looks like a damn throne, I swear—and picks her way through the girls that are crowded around her on the floor. She stops just in front of me, her expression one of pure innocence, blinking up at me with her long eyelashes. Did she get extensions or whatever they call them? They remind me of the little hairs that stick up on caterpillars. “You want to go back outside?”