Rowan (Worldwalker 1.50)

“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

They drove the rest of the way to Scot’s in comfortable silence. Scot’s street was already lined with cars. He had the kind of parents who went out of town a lot and didn’t seem to mind that their son threw huge parties in their absence. They had to know about it—everyone in town knew about Scot’s parties—but since being the “party guy” made Scot incredibly popular, his parents turned a blind eye to the whole thing. All they asked for was plausible deniability in front of the other kids’ parents, and Scot was good about that. He always hid the valuables, covered the furniture, and cleaned up thoroughly before his parents got home.

“Vomit,” Tristan warned, yanking Lily out of way before she could step in a chunky, orange puddle in the grass.

“Good eye.”

“Lots of practice. Scot’s front yard is always touch and go.”

Lily slowed down and tried to take shallow breaths. A bunch of kids were smoking out front on the wraparound deck, and she could smell it halfway across the yard. Several of the smokers spotted Tristan and started calling out to him, peering through the gloom at the girl on his arm.

“Hey, man! You made it. Who’s that with you?” a kid everyone called Breakfast asked. Lily realized no one recognized her without the usual meringue of curly hair on top of her head.

“Hey, Breakfast. It’s me. Lily.”

“Lily?” Breakfast immediately put his cigarette behind his back—thoughtful, but like that would help. “Are you okay? I mean does this bother you?”

Her eyes were watering, but she smiled and waved at him. “Don’t worry about it.”

She didn’t want to make him feel bad. She liked Breakfast. He’d always been a bit on the goofy side, but he had a way of winning people over—even the bullies who wanted to harass him.

“Lily?” Tristan’s brow creased with worry, and he tugged on her arm, angling her away from the smoke.

“I’m fine. Come on.”

They left Breakfast and his smoking buddies on the porch with a parting wave and went inside. More people called Tristan’s name as soon as they spotted him, like he was a celebrity.

It’s not that everyone loved Tristan. In fact, most of the guys glared at him as he passed, their jealousy palpable. Everyone either wished they were Tristan or that they were with him, and he knew it, but the attention didn’t make him stuck-up. It made him cautious. As Lily fielded some withering glances of her own, she finally understood why Tristan had always worked so hard to maintain their friendship. He didn’t have that many real friends. But then again, neither did Lily.

Lily smiled and waved at a girl from her poetry class whose writing had always impressed her. The smart girl, Una, waved back politely, but then returned to her conversation without inviting Lily to join her. It wasn’t meant as an insult—they just didn’t know each other outside of school. To be honest, Lily hadn’t really hung out with anyone besides Tristan since her mother started screaming destructive nonsense in public. After that, most girls were only nice to Lily so they could get closer to Tristan.

It had hurt a lot more than she would ever admit. Once she’d realized she was being used, Lily had become guarded around anyone who tried to be friendly toward her—even people who didn’t deserve it. Her chilliness had been a twisted form of self-preservation. But now that they were so near the end of high school, Lily regretted how she had behaved toward some of the girls in her class. Like Una.

“Hey, man,” Scot said smoothly as he greeted Tristan. “Wow. Lily. I think this is a first.”

Scot faced Lily, taking in her altered appearance. He was a big guy, as tall as Tristan, if not quite as developed, and Lily had to tilt her head back to look him in the eye. He stood close to Lily, smiling down at her in a friendly way. Scot had always seemed a bit too sly to Lily, like he was trying to find an angle on any situation, and she’d avoided him because of it. Now she wondered if she had judged him too harshly. He had a nice smile, she decided. Lily didn’t want to be the snide, cold loner anymore. She wanted to be a part of her class—if only for a few months.

“You don’t mind, do you?” Lily asked, smiling back at him.

“Are you kidding? I’m going to have to throw another party to celebrate you actually showing up to one of my parties.” Scot flashed his smile even wider, making Lily feel truly welcome. “Drink?”

“I’ll have a beer. Water for Lily,” Tristan answered. Scot raised an eyebrow. “Lily doesn’t drink,” Tristan stressed, a hint of a warning in his voice.

“That’s cool. I’m not drinking tonight, either,” Scot said as he waded through the crowd to the kitchen. He pulled a beer and a bottle of water out of a giant tub of ice on the counter and brought it over to them. “Just a heads-up. Miranda’s here,” Scot said as he politely opened the water bottle for Lily and handed it to her.

“Christ,” Tristan said under his breath, scanning the growing crowd.

“She’s downstairs in the family room. Dancing. Or stripping. I can’t figure out which at this point,” Scot said with a wry grimace. “Why don’t you go and talk to her before she comes up here and starts throwing things at you?”

Tristan glanced at Lily, silently asking permission.

“Go. Seriously. You need to take care of that,” Lily replied immediately, sounding much more encouraging than she felt.

“I’ll keep Lily company,” Scot offered. “Make sure she doesn’t get trampled by the hockey team.” He gestured into the kitchen with his head, where four beefy dudes were downing shots and doing a lot of unnecessary shoving and bellowing.

“Okay. I’ll be back in a bit,” Tristan finally decided. “Or I’ll be back in bits, depending on what kind of mood Miranda’s in.” He drank most of his beer in one gulp.

“Courage, man,” Scot said bracingly, fixing Tristan’s shirt.