“He’s definitely being… super cute.”
“And that is definitely the first time ‘cute’ has ever been used to describe Julian Hoult. Pretty sure even when he was a baby, his mom called him ‘handsome’ and ‘efficient.’”
I laughed hard enough to attract Julian and Lukas’s attention for a second. Biting my lip, I exchanged a little grin with Julian before he went back to his conversation.
“Like that. That just now? You guys are acting like a couple or some shit,” Lia hissed. “Sara, I swear to God, I am presently overwhelmed with the possibilities of our summer if you start dating Julian.”
“Oh my God, will you cool it?” I laughed. “Can I take this a day at a time, please?”
“That’s what normal people who practice caution say. You’re not that person anymore. You just did two hours on the road as your first motorcycle ride ever.”
“To be fair, I’ve ridden the back of a motorcycle around an empty parking lot before.”
“Yeah. Totally comparable,” Lia said just before she was pulled into Emmett’s conversation. I was too busy exchanging eyes with Julian over Lia’s seat to pay attention to the question being asked, so I was lost once I was roped in to give my answer on the topic.
“Sorry, what’s happening?” I laughed sheepishly as Lia and Julian exchanged seats again. Emmett nodded toward the restaurant.
“I was just saying how I invested in this place because I did post-prom in Southampton after high school, and these assholes,” he gestured around the fire pit, “are telling me post-prom in the Hamptons is ridiculous, so I wanna know what everyone did for theirs.”
“Post-prom?” I repeated to buy time. I swallowed as I blinked at the flames whipping in the fire pit. “Um, in my town…” Crap. My throat felt suddenly so dry. “People went to party venues for the ‘after prom party,’ and it was adult supervised, but I know that they were able to still get away with bringing alcohol and stuff.”
“You don’t sound like you went to it,” a bright, clear voice observed. I turned to the side to realize it belonged to Pixie. She wasn’t being particularly rude, but I mentally cursed her for pointing that out.
“Yeah, I didn’t go,” I admitted.
“Why not?”
“Um.” Fuck. The entire circle was staring at me now, and I was so shitty at lying. I could practically hear Lia’s mind racing to figure out how to intervene, but she was coming up as short as I was. Damn it. I could lie swimmingly on a regular basis, if I was prepared to, but this question caught me completely by surprise. “I graduated high school a year early,” I finally confessed to some impressed looks around the pit. It seemed to be enough explanation for most, but Pixie pressed on.
“So you were a little younger your senior year. That doesn’t mean you’re not allowed at prom,” she said with sympathy in her voice. Whether it was real or not, I didn’t know.
“Yeah, I just…” I trailed off, my heart beating too fast now for me to come up with my next thought.
“Emmett, why don’t you tell everyone about the fire you started at your prom?” Julian said, causing even me to look promptly over at Emmett for an explanation.
“You started a fire at your prom, E?” some guy laughed.
“You’re surprised?” Julian smirked.
“I for one am not,” Lukas volunteered. “But I definitely need to hear the story now.”
And just like that, crisis averted. I was certain no one remembered my lack of attendance at my own prom as Emmett explained exactly how he committed accidental arson at his. I breathed easy again, and I closed my eyes with content when I felt Julian’s hand massaging the back of my neck again.
It would’ve been nice to open them without seeing Pixie staring hard at me.
“Lia, who is that woman?” I had to ask when Lia and I took our customary bathroom break for the sole purpose of asking these kinds of questions. “The one in the green who grilled me about my prom.”
“I don’t know, but trust me, I was asking Lukas the same question after she pulled that I’m-so-curious shit. Like, couldn’t she see that you didn’t want to talk about it? Jesus.”
“What did Lukas say? Does he know who she is?” I asked.
“No.” Lia flashed me an apologetic look. “I swear there’s so much even he doesn’t know about Julian, and he’s by far the closest to Julian outside of family.”
Dammit. It was crazy to think that, as much time as I’d spent with Julian of late, I hadn’t remotely scratched his surface. If a friend as old as Lukas still didn’t know a good chunk about him then I imagined there was no chance for me to get an answer if I somehow dared ask who Pixie was.
“So, Emmett’s funny,” I offered to lighten the mood.
“Yeah, he’s crazy,” Lia laughed. “And a party animal. Give him another few hours, he’ll turn this kumbaya into a full-on rager.”