My stomach sinks at his cruelty.
“You do realize that knowing you don’t want me there makes me want to go even more, right?”
Fuming, Finn doesn’t argue, rolling his fists into firm balls and letting out an irritated “I’ll be in the car.”
The front door slams behind him, and Theo and I lock eyes, startled by his outburst. He left me a funny note on the fridge just a few hours ago, and now he’s making a scene because I want to go to a party I was invited to?
Why is he so hell-bent on keeping me away from this party?
Theo plucking his keys out of his pocket and gesturing to the door halts my spiral. I have no idea what this night has in store for me, but hey, it can’t possibly be worse than the way it started…
Can it?
* * *
Lacey: Text me when you’re here.
Clutching my phone into my fist, I shadow Theo and Finn inside Lacey’s house and consider two equally plausible possibilities.
One: Lacey invited me here because she genuinely enjoys my company and wants to be my friend. Or two: my life just turned into a bad remake of Carrie and Lacey invited me for the sole purpose of humiliating me.
Maybe Brie put her up to this?
Or could it be Louise?
Last I checked, neither loves me very much, and considering that Finn moaned my name while in bed with Louand that I cockblocked Brie and Finn on my first day on the job, I wouldn’t like me either. All I know is I don’t belong here, and it took me marching into the most chaotic party in history to realize it.
The house is jam-packed, dense smoke and a mixture of sweat and vomit triggering my gag reflex as we push through the crowd. The music is also ear-splitting, but I’m not nearly as bothered by it as I am by the suffocating heat.
“Cox, Richards, get your asses over here. We need you.” A basketball player in the middle of a beer pong game calls on Theo and Finn from the moment we enter the room.
“I’ll text you when we’re leaving,” Theo, being the designated driver, tells me before setting off to meet his buddies. Finn follows suit without so much as a glance in my direction.
I watch Finn’s friends hype up his arrival, hitting his shoulder as though he’s a god amongst men. That’s when I realize I’d rather risk being humiliated by Lacey and her mean friends than spend the entire night alone.
I would’ve invited Aveena, seeing as she’s my only friend in the world, but I know Vee would rather choke at every meal for the rest of her life than show up to a party. That, and the smell of alcohol makes her queasy.
I’m on my own, for better or worse.
“I’m here,”I text Lacey, my stomach twisting into a tight knot. Her response comes through right away.
Lacey: Where?
I message her back.
Dia: Kitchen.
Less than a minute goes by before her voice slashes through the music.
“Dia!” I spot her waving at me by the door, a bottle of rosé in her right hand. I slap on a smile, nudging my worries aside and making my way over to her.
“About time.” She chuckles drunkenly, cluing me in as to how much she’s had.
Short answer? A lot.
I’m surprised when she loops her arms around my neck for a hug. Maybe I was paranoid? Lacey isn’t Brie. Or Louise. From what I can tell, the girl has more kindness in her pinky than her cheerleader friends ever will in their entire body.
I’m not saying she doesn’t have her moments—she’s been known to get into it with Brie once or twice—but she’s like a breath of fresh air from the mean-girl stereotype.