Henry smiled. "I'll be there then."
Amelia blushed, prompting me to roll my eyes. And then I restrained a gagging impulse when she giggled for no reason. "I'll see you guys later. I'm going to class." And away from the envy pool.
As soon as school was over, I ran straight to my car. The party was supposed to start at seven. I was going to eat, shower, and dress to kill. I was pulling out all of the stops tonight. I needed to be carefree and reckless for once in my life.
Being good had only brought me heartache and pain. Being good had made me a target for everyone in the mortal and the immortal world. I needed to just break free and get some release. I was tired of all of the supernatural powers and complicated emotions. I was ready to be a typical teenager for just one night.
At seven sharp, I decided to leave. I knocked on Henry's door, not bothering to wait on him to answer. "Are you still going?"
He walked to the door dressed like a model. "Yeah, but Amelia said she wasn't going to be able to come tonight."
The disappointment tainting his expression was a damper on my excitement.
"You don't have to go then. I can do this solo."
He shook his head. "No. I could use a night out. It gets boring staying here all the time. Besides, I told Everett we were going. He's supposed to be meeting us there."
"Good. I really didn't want to go alone."
He smiled mildly. "I know."
We mostly stayed quiet for the short drive. It was less than ten minutes from my house, but it was long enough for me to become a ball of nerves. I started to ask him about his involvement with Amelia, and how long he was going to let it go on, but it was too heavy of a topic to broach. I had to trust he'd stop it before it got too deep.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, his voice soft.
It seemed as if he was almost trying to talk me out of my decision. "Yeah. I'm sure. I need this."
"Well, let's make an entrance then."
I smiled and nodded, and we climbed out of the car. I was wearing a slinky camisole top with low cut jeans. My stomach was trying to peek out of the bottom of my shirt just barely. Tonight I was on a mission to have fun—wild, mortal, irresponsible, crazy fun.
We walked up and started to knock on the door, but it swung open before we could. It was Trey, which was surprising. He started laughing for no apparent reason. He seemed wildly fascinated with our arrival.
"Aria? Awesome. I didn't know you were coming."
"Yeah, Amelia was supposed to come, too, but she wasn't able to."
"Amelia's the hottie that usually hangs out with you, right?" His words were barely understandable through his slurs.
Henry grumbled something under his breath, and I tried not to laugh.
"Yeah. She was supposed to come as Henry's date."
Trey's eyes widened. "Oh. Cool. So you two aren't together?" I shook my head no, and Trey continued, "Well let's get to partying then."
He let out a loud yell and the whole party responded by mimicking his primitive call. I laughed, amused by the whole scene. It was different than the party Jared and I had attended.
Trey ran off to talk to some more new arrivals. Henry and I made our way to the beverage table, which was overly cramped with too many selections. I grabbed a cup and poured some punch into it.
Henry put his hand over my cup to stop me from drinking it seconds before it reached my lips. "You don't want to drink that, Aria."
My eyes went up to meet his amused ones. "Why not?"
He snickered lightly. "It has alcohol in it. I can smell it from here."
I looked at the cup, weighing my decision. Shrugging, I smirked. “Well, you only live once, right?"
Henry didn't seem crazy about my response, but he removed his hand and ran it through his hair while sighing. "If you say so. Just remember I tried to warn you."