I take her hand and drag her along with me, not bothering to answer her. Not that she’d listen to me. She’s too busy currently bitching me out.
“By the way, if we’re going to try to make this work, you have to talk to your friends, Jake. They treat me like absolute garbage, and I won’t tolerate their insults. They talk about me like I’m not even there and they say the worst things,” she says as we head up the stairs. “You don’t stop them. You don’t say anything. Whose side are you on, anyway?”
I release my grip on her hand and run up the stairs, waiting for her at the top as she slowly makes her way toward me. She’s wearing a top with a low neck that shows off her tits, and denim shorts that are so short, the pockets are hanging out from the bottom. She looks good and she knows it.
Cami stops directly in front of me, crossing her arms and plumping up her chest even more. My gaze drops to her cleavage. “Did you even hear a word I said?”
“Yeah, yeah. You want me to talk to my friends. They insult you and they’re jerks. What else is new?” I tilt my head toward the hall and start walking. “Let’s go find a bedroom.”
“Jake.” She stomps after me, annoyed, and I sort of don’t care. “All you want from me is sex.”
I turn to face her. “Isn’t that what you want from me?”
She blinks up at me. “Well. Yes. But I was hoping we could have something…more than that.”
My mood deflates. “You want us to get back together.”
“Not yet,” she says quickly, and I’m guessing she can tell she’s losing me. “I’m suggesting we should try hanging out together first. See what happens.”
My friends are right. I shouldn’t go down this road again with Cami. She’ll act like she wants to get with me, toy with me for a while, we’ll fuck around, I’ll start having feelings for her yet again, and then she’ll dump my ass.
If I let this happen, that’ll be the third time. I’ll end up looking like a complete asshole. My friends will tell me I asked for it.
And I won’t be able to deny it.
“I don’t know, Cam.” I rub my hand along my jaw, contemplating her. She’s cute as hell. Sweet when she wants to be, which is rare. I’m realizing the older she gets, the worse she behaves. She’s mean as a snake to other girls, and I think she’s secretly jealous of every single one of them. I remember her being insecure in the past.
Do I really want to hang out with a girl like that? I do have some standards.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? I thought we were going to try this.” Oh, she’s furious now. “I wore your jersey today!”
“Just because you wore my jersey doesn’t mean we’re fully committed. Come on, you know that,” I tell her.
She makes a pissed off sound and actually stomps her foot, like she’s having a tantrum. “Fuck you, Jake Callahan. Fuck you for being such a tease!”
And with that, she hurries down the stairs, making so much noise you’d think it was a herd of cows running.
“What the fuck?” I say out loud, running both hands through my hair and tugging on the ends. Here I thought I’d get at least a blowjob out of the interlude, and instead I get a fight with an ex that feels all too familiar.
Maybe that’s the punch of reality I need.
Six
Hannah
“Okay.” Sophie shuts off the car’s engine and turns to look at me, her eyes wide and unblinking. “Here’s the plan. We’ll just walk in like we own the place. If we act scared or like we don’t belong, we’ll stick out. And that’s the last thing we need.”
We’re going to stick out already because neither of us has been to one of Tony’s parties ever in our lives, and the popular crowd will wonder what we’re doing there.
But I’m not going to point that out to Sophie. She seems anxious enough.
It was all well and good during the game, when we were contemplating only the idea of the party. We giggled as we watched the cheer team perform their halftime routine. We yelled extra loud after the band finished performing, giving them the recognition so few in the stands ever do.
Now we’re here, and I’m tempted to chicken out. I bet Sophie is too.
“There are a lot of people in that house,” I point out, glancing around at all the cars surrounding us. “Are you going to be okay walking in there?”
She’s working on her shyness, she’s been telling me that since school started. But sometimes, she gets anxious. Heck, so do I. I’m not good in big crowds either, and that house is filled with people I know of, but don’t actually know. Not really. A lot of them I’ve gone to school with since kindergarten, but we were never what I would call friends.
“I’ll be fine.” She exhales shakily and I get the sense she’s telling herself that more than answering me. “We can either sit in my car for the next hour mentally preparing ourselves to walk inside that house, or we can actually…you know. Walk inside that house.”
I hear a shrill scream in the near distance, followed by a male voice bellowing, “Fuck you, Mike! Stay away from her!”
My gaze meets Sophie’s and I see the fear in her eyes. She looks ready to bolt. “Let’s go inside,” I tell her.
Her eyes widen as if she didn’t expect me to make that suggestion. I bet she believed I’d say let’s stay in the car. “Really?”
“Yes,” I say with far more determination than I feel. “Really. Let’s go.”
We climb out of the car in tandem, meeting at the back of her mom’s silver Honda. The air is cooler up here by the lake, which makes sense considering we’re higher, elevation-wise. Shivering when the breeze hits, I rub my hands over my bare arms, trying to warm myself up. “No skinny dipping in the lake for me,” I say dryly. “It’s way too cold.”
“You could always jump in the hot tub naked,” Sophie suggests with a wry smile.
“Right. Only if you jump in the hot tub naked with me.” I nudge her in the side as we make our way toward the front of the house.
“Guess we’re both of out luck then,” Sophie says with a grin, but it wavers a little and the smile eventually falls from her face. “Why did I think it was a good idea to go to this party again?”
“Because you have the tiniest crush on Tony Sorrento and you want to see him tonight,” I remind her, though she hadn’t necessarily admitted she has a crush on Tony. Yet.
Sophie parked pretty far from the house, only because the long, winding driveway had been lined with cars and we didn’t have a choice. So many people are here, it’s kind of mind blowing. The massive house looms in the distance, every window seemingly lit, loud music and the dull roar of conversation pouring from it.
“I don’t have a crush on him,” Sophie protests, but it’s weak. “More like I just think he’s…nice.”
“Uh huh,” I say with a snort.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t mind seeing Jake Callahan,” she teases.
I roll my eyes, annoyed that she keeps bringing him up. I’ve never thought about him once the entirety of high school until he approached me yesterday. Now I supposedly have a crush on him? Get real. “You’re making a big deal out of nothing. He’s too wrapped up in Cami.”