It was exhausting. By the time dinner was over and I’d cleaned up the dishes, I was more than ready to escape to my room and get ready for Caster’s party. The only good thing I could say about the time spent with my family was that they’d managed to take my mind off Bo, but that was like saying that someone cut off my leg to take my mind off the hole in my chest—simply a trade of one painful thing for another.
After finishing my second shower of the day, I flipped idly through my closet looking for something to wear. The nights were starting to get a little cool, feeling more like fall, so I dressed in jeans and a light sage-colored sweater that made my skin look like rich, gleaming bronze.
I waited in my room until I saw Drew’s lights as he turned into the driveway. I virtually ran out the door to meet him, a fact that was not lost on him. He mistook it for excitement to see him in particular rather than just excitement to be rescued from Hell House.
“You sure you want to go to this party? We could always skip it and go to my uncle’s cabin instead,” Drew suggested, always thinking with his little head.
I was instantly irritated and I snapped. “Can’t you, just for tonight, not be a typical guy?”
Drew rolled his eyes and backed out of the driveway. Neither of us said another word until we got to Caster’s.
“Looks like a good turnout,” Drew said as he cut the engine once he’d found a parking spot.
He got out, as did I. Daughtry’s remake of Photograph blared from a stereo somewhere inside the cabin and people milled about in the front yard, laughing and talking, drinks in hand. A bonfire burned to the left of the structure and beside it, staying cool in a barrel of ice, was a keg. We made our way in that direction. Drew never turned down free beer.
Trinity was the first to greet us. She had managed to drape herself all over Devon. By the look on his face, the party was not going at all according to his plan, but he knew, as we all did, that Trinity was someone that you just had to humor. Her claws and forked tongue left vicious wounds and even Devon avoided making her angry whenever possible.
“Ridley! Omigod, you will never believe who is here,” Trinity said excitedly as we stopped in front of them. “Do you remember Bobby Knight? He was a year older than Izzy,” she explained.
Even after three years, I still felt a small stab of pain every time someone mentioned Izzy.
“I remember,” I replied.
“He’s here with LeAnne Warner,” she said, as if that was the juiciest gossip ever.
“I thought she—”
“Exactly,” Trinity said, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
“Ew,” I said, wrinkling my nose.
We stood and talked for a while. Trinity was having the time of her life and you could tell. Devon was having probably one of the worse nights of his. You could tell that as well. Drew was waiting for something, but I didn’t know what and I was…I don’t know what I was. I wouldn’t call my mood happy per se; I would just stipulate to being happy that I wasn’t at home. That was a certainty.
In a way I’d become adept at, I was listening to Trinity without hearing a word that she said. She did manage to grab my attention when she stopped mid sentence and exclaimed sharply, “You have got to be kidding me!”
We all turned to see what had made such an impression on her. When I saw that it was a who rather than a what, my heart sank into my sandals. Walking up to the cabin was Savannah Grant, Trinity’s arch enemy, and she was not alone. She was with Bo.
I was first struck by how different he looked. Gone was the dark hoodie. Instead, he wore a gray and white Abercrombie and Fitch rugby shirt that made his shoulders look devastatingly wide and his hair look black as the night around him.
Trinity reached between us and grabbed Drew’s arm, doing her best to turn him to face her.
“Are you just gonna stand there? That’s the guy that’s been stalking your girlfriend,” she said, her first attempt of the night to stir up trouble. Sadly, even if Savannah left, it wouldn’t be the last.
“He’s here with someone else, Trinity. I don’t think—”
“That’s not the point. You need to set him straight about keeping his eyes to himself.”
“He hasn’t even—”
“Oh, come on, Drew!”
“Trinity, I—”
“Am I the only one at this party with the balls to ask them to leave?”
No one answered her. I knew she was going to go off, and while normally I would’ve done something to try and avert a disaster, all I could think about was how Bo’s eyes made me feel and how they were now turned on Savannah.
Numbly, I watched the scene unfold.
“Fine,” she said, stomping off. “I’ll just take care of it myself.”
Trinity marched right up to them and said as loudly as she could, “You need to leave.”
She was standing directly in front of Savannah when she said it, staring right at her, so there was no doubt to whom she was referring.
Savannah looked confused and taken aback. “Me? Why?”
“Because no one wants you here. I don’t even know why you came.”
“I came because I was invited,” Savannah said, straightening her spine defiantly.
“No one invited you to come here,” Trinity spat.
“It’s an open party and I came with Bo.”
“I don’t care if you came with Mother Teresa, no one wants you here. We all want you gone. Now leave!” Trinity’s decibel level had risen to the point that everyone at the party could hear the spew of her venom. After all, no party was complete until Trinity had shown her butt at least once.
Across the bonfire, Bo’s eyes met mine for a split second before he looked away, turning his attention back to Trinity. In that moment, I saw something flicker in his eyes, something that made me feel small and ashamed, spineless and cruel. I never wanted to see that look again.
“Why don’t you just go back over there with your friends and enjoy the party? She’s not hurting anyone,” Bo chimed in amicably.
“Why don’t you stay out of this? It’s not you that I have a problem with. It’s her,” Trinity said, poking one bony finger at Savannah’s chest.