“Fine,” he answers. “Now do me a favor and go relax, please. You look like you’re at a chess tournament.”
I shoot him a scowl and grab the iPad out of
his hands, letting him walk back to the guys, laughing.
Drifting around the action, I scroll the feed as I walk, recognizing lots of names of friends and classmates who showed up to support us. The small fires from the pits waft through my nostrils, and I study a picture of a guy with the word HORSE written in Sharpie over his fly. A girl points to it, posing for the camera with her hand over her mouth in surprise. The caption reads, I found a horse!
I laugh. Of course, some of the tasks, like snap a picture of yourself with a horse, can’t be done unless you get really creative. Good for her.
There are a zillion pics and videos, and I don’t know how Dane’s going to sort through all this shit tomorrow. Though, knowing him, the winner won’t be random and fair at all. He’ll just choose the best looking girl from the photos.
Scrolling down, I spot a video that starts playing, and I watch as a girl takes a bar gun, faces it upward and away from herself, spraying water. It shoots up and then falls back down like a fountain.
She performs a sexy little dance move and laughs at the camera. “I’m standing in a fountain!” she announces, her breasts barely contained in her tank top.
A tank top she’s wearing in the chilly New England February weather.
But then one of the bartenders snatches the gun out of the girl’s hand and sets it back in place at the bar, shooting her an annoyed look.
I hear a quiet laugh from the other side of the camera.
The girl in the tank top reaches for the phone. “Okay, that was embarrassing. Give it here. I need to edit it before I post it.”
“Uh, uh,” the female voice behind the camera taunts as she backs away.
But tank top girl charges her, squealing, “Ryen!” And then I hear laughter, and the video ends.
I stand there, staring at the iPad, my heart slowly starting to pound in my chest.
Ryen?
The girl behind the camera is named Ryen?
No, it’s not her. It can’t be. There are tons of girls who probably have that name. She wouldn’t be here.
But I look at the video, and my gaze is drawn to the names at the top of the post. She’d tagged the band and a few other people, but then I look at the name of the person who posted it.
Ryen Trevarrow.
I straighten my back, my chest rising and falling with shallow breaths.
Oh, my God.
Shit! I instantly look up, unable to stop myself from scanning the crowd, drifting from face to face.
Any one of these girls could be her. She’s here? What the fuck?
I look down at the iPad again and hover my finger over her name, hesitating.
Seven years I’ve known her, but I’ve never seen her face. If I search her out now, there’s no going back.
But she’s here. I can’t not look for her. Not when I know she could be within arm’s reach.
That’s too much to ask of anyone.
And we never promised we wouldn’t look each other up on Facebook. We simply said we wouldn’t communicate on social media. For all I know she’s searched for me. She could be looking for me right now, knowing what band I belong to and that this is our event. Maybe that’s why she’s here.
Fuck it. I tap her name and stand frozen as her profile comes up.