Jasmine’s tall, with deep brown skin, a short afro, and sparkles on her cheekbones that match Maddie’s.
“Daphne’s girlfriend’s friend, right?” Jasmine asks. At my nod, she continues, “I’ve been waiting for you guys all night! Daphne said you’re amazing at art, and she showed me that portrait you gave her. It was gorgeous! Are you going to OCAD in September? Please say yes! I want to know someone when I go.”
My face heats, and I take a sip of my drink to hide some of the redness. “Um . . . no. I’m actually going to TMU for business. But congrats on getting into OCAD! You must be amazing.”
She frowns. “Thanks, but why aren’t you coming? You’re so good.”
I shift from foot to foot. I can’t exactly tell her I’m scared I’m not good enough, not after she just said she thinks Iamgood enough, so instead I shrug.
Maddie must sense that I don’t want to talk about it, because she gasps and exclaims, “I love this song! Dance with us?” She grabs the full beer in my hand and sets it down on a table before pulling me onto the makeshift dance floor.
I’m not familiar with the song that’s playing, but it’s catchy enough to dance to. The three of us dance together in a circle not too far from the DJ, surrounded by a bunch of other kids dancing as well. The music pounds in my chest, and bubbles float through the surrounding air. We giggle and poke at the few that enter our airspace.
Against my will, my gaze wanders over to Emmett to see if he’s watching us, but he’s talking to Eric. Kalani is at the table with the alcohol, talking to a guy with slicked-back brown hair and dark sunglasses covering his eyes.Who wears sunglasses to a house party at night?She points at me and waves, and the guy she’s talking to follows her gaze. My eyebrows draw together, but I wave back, and the guy’s lips pull up at the corners.
“Oh my God, he’s totally checking you out!” Maddie yells in my ear. I want to ask how she knows he’s checking me out considering he’s wearing sunglasses at a house party at night, but she points in the opposite direction of Sunglasses.
Jasmine grabs me and turns me around so I’m facing the beer pong table, and my heart stops.
“That’sJay,” Maddie shouts in my ear. “He’sso hot. I wish he looked at me like that.”
It is Jay. His height makes him visible through the crowd as he talks to someone, but his eyes are on me. When he notices he has my attention, he scans me up and down, then smirks. I know that look, and I know exactly what he’s thinking:She’s wearing white panties. Instead of pissing me off, the thought makes me laugh. Is something wrong with me?
Jasmine gapes at me. “You know him? You know Jay?”
“I wish I didn’t,” I mumble, but she doesn’t hear me; instead, she grabs my hand and walks us through the crowd toward the beer pong tables, Maddie trailing behind us. My heels sink into the grass, and I cringe as I try to walk as gracefully as I can manage while my shoes decide they don’t agree with the soft terrain.
The backyard is packed now, and I can only imagine what inside looks like. It’s getting harder to differentiate between kids from Oakwoods and Northbrook, and I’m pretty sure some of the kids here don’t go to either school. Maddie stops to talk to someone new, but Jasmine leads me to Jay.
“Hey, Jay.” Jasmine smiles at him before shoving me forward. “This is Carina.”
“We’ve met,” he says over the music, looking down at me. He’s in a navy T-shirt that fits him perfectly and outlines his sculpted shoulders. Jasmine pushes me so close to Jay I have to crane my neck to make eye contact. My new friend grabs the guy Jay was talking to—a tall boy with red hair and pale skin who was with him at the cliff—and then they disappear, leaving the two of us alone.
My chest grazes his, and shivers run down my spine. We’re so close I can feel his body heat. Someone stumbles into my back, and Jay reflexively places his hands on my waist to steady me. They feel good there,morethan good, and that sets alarm bells off in my mind.This is Jay.He’s an asshole!It’s the two sips of beer I drank. It must be changing my body’s natural response to him, since it should be disgust, not intrigue. I shouldn’t be thinking about how good his hands feel.
Before I can linger in his touch, I take a step back, which forces his hands to drop. His face hardens.
“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be doing something boring right now?” His tone brings me back down to earth, and I cross my arms. This isJay. He’s hot, sure, but he hates me and I hate him, and that’s the way it should be.
I match his tone. “I’m here having fun. And you said I didn’t know how to live a little.”
His gaze dips and lands on my feet, which are slowly sinking into the mud, before he says, “You realize your outfit choice for the night isn’t the smartest, right? What is with you wearing heels and dresses to casual events?”
“In my defense, I didn’t know we were going to the cliff that first time. And this is how we always dress for parties,” I say as I gesture at the crowd, half of whom are dressed exactly like me.
Jay just shakes his head and mutters, “Oakwoods.”
Emmett notices me from where he’s talking with Daphne, so I wave. Jay notices.
“Have you heard from your date and his mom yet?” he asks, one eyebrow raised. “When’s the wedding?”
Emmett waves back, his eyes going from me to Jay, and he tilts his head questioningly. His words from earlier replay in my mind.
To Jay, I say, “No, I haven’t heard from them, and I’m mad at you for encouraging my rude behavior.”
He rears back from me. “You’re mad at me.” It should be a question, but it comes out as a statement.
I nod once. “Yes. You put the idea in my head. You should’ve told me I was being rude instead of making me feel like a fake phone call was a good idea.”