“You can’t walk from here, you little shit!” Will argued. “It’s miles.”
“So leave the party and gimme a ride.”
“Are you nuts?”
The laugh was lost in my throat as I turned around and started heading for the backyard again.
“That damn kid,” Will said, jogging to catch up to us. “I don’t know how he can be my blood.”
We walked around the house—the text invite stressing that no one was allowed inside the home and to come directly around to the backyard—and stopped just as the sprawling lawn came into view.
People danced and played drinking games, commotion going on in every corner as the music blasted and a football coasted through the air.
I could smell the food laid out on tables as several people played or talked in the pool. Nearly every chair was occupied, and some students took up the chaise lounges by the pool house, steam billowing out of the showers behind the structure. A light layer of mist also lingered just above the surface of the water, making the pool look like a hot tub.
“Hand in your phones,” someone called out.
I looked over to see a JV football player—whose name I didn’t know—sitting at a card table, eyeing us with our names already on Post-Its, ready to confiscate our shit, so no evidence of the party leaked online.
“Fuck your mother,” I muttered and looked back to the party, hearing Kai snort next to me.
All we needed were our phones getting stolen while in someone else’s possession. Pictures, texts, videos, receipts… I didn’t give mine up for anyone. It was safer with me, and if they wanted to kick us out for not following a rule, then good luck with that. People didn’t stay at parties we weren’t at.
The freshman didn’t say another word—or even move—as we walked into the party. Girls ran around, some in bikini tops, even though it was in the sixties tonight. I knew the pool was heated, but it had to be chilly if you were out of it.
One of them glanced up at me as she scurried by with her friends, a suggestive little smile playing on the corner of her lips that told me she probably wouldn’t take as much work as some if I were interested tonight.
But I like work.
I let my eyes trail around the backyard, shooting from corners to tables to the sporadic clusters of people.
But I knew who I was looking for. Even though I knew I shouldn’t be. This might actually be crossing a line, even for me.
When we were eight and eleven, it didn’t seem complicated to want to know each other, but now it was. People would read it wrong.
Michael let out a sigh, rolling his head and stretching out his neck. “Let’s get a drink.”
We nodded and moved into the party, getting beers and stopping here and there to talk to people.
Eventually, we found a table and I kicked off my shoes, pulling off my hoodie and throwing it down on a chair before grabbing my beer bottle and downing the rest of it.
Spotting one of our own basketball JV guys at the table, I shoved the empty bottle at him, which he took as he halted his conversation, pausing only a moment before he rose to get me another.
“All of us,” I mumbled to him as he left. Will drank faster than I did, so he’d be empty soon if he wasn’t already.
Kai sat down at the table, drinking and laughing at something someone said, while Michael walked off to talk to Diana Forester.
“Whoo-hoo!” Will cupped his hands around his mouth, howling in the middle of the party, over the loud music.
Everyone startled and turned just in time to see him run, shoes and shirt discarded, and leap into the deep end of the pool, somersaulting backward in mid-air before splashing into the water.
People laughed, hooting and hollering after him, and I walked over to the edge and stepped in, dropping into waist-deep water. I wore long, black swim shorts that fell to just above my knees, and I hadn’t brought a change of clothes. Banks had begged to come with me tonight, and I ended up charging out of the house to get away from that pathetic look on her face, a little pissed and a whole lot distracted and forgetting my cigarettes in the process.
Will popped up through the water, laughing and exchanging a few splashes with others before he swam over to me. I planted my elbows on the deck behind me, leaning against the edge of the pool.
“Arion Ashby wants your ass bad, man,” he said, standing up and pushing his hair over the top of his head. He jerked his chin off behind me, amused.
I glanced over my shoulder, seeing Winter’s older sister standing with her friends and eyeing us. My gaze traveled down her body, long, slender limbs in a white, strapless bikini and a long, fluffy ponytail. Both of her legs were adorned with anklets, and a multi-strand gold necklace in varying lengths rested on her chest.