Hold the Forevers

“And how do you two know each other?” Tanner asked.

I glanced at Ash and shrugged. “We went to high school together.”

“I thought you went to an all-girls Catholic school.” Denise waggled her eyebrows at me.

“I went to the adjoining all-boys school,” Ash explained.

“All-boys school,” Tanner said with a shudder. “Can’t believe they still have those.”

“It’s not all bad.”

“What a coincidence that you ran into each other,” Denise slurred.

Ash looked straight at me when he said, “I don’t believe in coincidences.”

I had to look away to hide my blush.

Denise, however, didn’t seem to notice. “You should come party with us!”

She didn’t wait for a response, just took Tanner’s hand and dragged him through the crowd. I glanced at Ash. My stomach was suddenly in my throat. This wasn’t a good idea.

“It’s good to see you, Lila.”

“You too,” I admitted. It was strange how much I could be furious with him for how everything had gone down in the past and also miss him. Because I did miss him.

“When did you get here?” he asked me, falling into step with me.

“This afternoon. No classes on Friday. Everyone wanted to drive up Thursday after classes, but I had to work. So, my car waited to come in today.”

“Same. Well, we have classes. We’re skipping.”

“Scandalous,” I said with a laugh.

His eyes lit up as if he’d forgotten what I sounded like. Then we were lost to the crowd, meandering through the people to get back to our tent. I handed Ash a beer and was immediately attacked by Channing.

“Wait,” she gasped, drunk and sloppy, “it’s the Ash?”

Ash arched an eyebrow. “That’d be me.”

“Oh my God, what are you doing here?”

“Just in town with a friend.”

“We didn’t get to chat last time we met,” she said drunkenly. “So, like, is it all that shit true? Like what happened at prom?”

“Channing,” I groaned. “Can we not? Go find Kandice.”

“Ugh. You ruin all my fun, Deedee,” she said, pinching my cheeks before disappearing again.

“Deedee?” he asked.

“Don’t even get me started on drunk Channing.”

He glanced down at the lukewarm can of Natural Light. “So, you talk about me?”

“Um …”

“And she knows about prom?”

“She’s been my roommate for more than two years. I would think that she knows most things about me.”

“Hmm,” he said.

I could sense an argument coming on, and I didn’t have the energy for it. We’d had the same argument over and over again since prom. I didn’t want to have to disagree with him here when I was with my friends.

“Why don’t we forget about it today?” I suggested. “Just have a good time and not worry about anything?”

He met my gaze, as if trying to find the catch but finding none. “I’m game.”

Then he punctured the center of his beer can and shotgunned it. I gasped, and everyone else around us cheered him on as he guzzled the entire contents of the can in one go. I couldn’t stop laughing to see my refined Catholic school boy, who wore bow ties and boat shoes, shotgunning a beer.

“Had to catch up,” he told me with a grin.

Thankfully, after that point, it was so easy to be around Ash. It always had been. It was half the reason I’d avoided him this long. Not because I wanted to kill him—though sometimes, I considered it—but because if I let my guard down, it was almost too easy to go back to how things had been.

We got drunk and danced and made fools of ourselves. Frat Beach was the perfect balm for our blistered relationship.

Night had long fallen when I remembered to check my phone. I patted down my jean shorts, extracted it from the back pocket, and flopped down on our already-sandy blanket. I blinked a few times to adjust to the unnatural brightness. Then I frowned when I saw the screen.

Cole had called a bunch. That was weird. He knew I was here this weekend and that I wouldn’t be by my phone. I should probably call him back.

I hauled myself off of the ground and hiked back up to the hotel where it was quieter. Though my mind was still spinning from too much alcohol. Probably not the best time to call, but I wanted to make sure he was okay.

He answered immediately, “Hey.”

“Cole!” I gushed. “There you are. Is everything okay? You kept calling.”

“Not really,” he said, his voice rough.

“What happened?”

“Are you with Ash?”

I glanced around. “Uh, no.”

He ground his teeth. “I know that you’ve been with him, Lila.”

“Oh, he’s here with his friend Tanner, who is, like, hooking up with one of my dance friends.”

“So, he’s with you.”

“Not right now.”

Cole made a frustrated noise. “There are pictures of you with him all over Facebook.”

I stopped smiling at that. There were pictures of us on Facebook? Of course, my friends had taken hundreds of pictures since we’d gotten out here. And I was with Ash. But I hadn’t considered that pictures of us together would end up on the internet.