Downstairs, the basement is already alive with music and voices. Jace’s bandmates are sprawled across the sectional, drinks in hand. A curvy brunette has made herself comfortablein Jace’s lap, twirling a strand of hair around her finger while laughing obnoxiously at something he said.
“Hey guys!” Sal chirps, syrupy sweet. Her voice is cheerful, but I hear the steel underneath. I glance at her, taking note of her stiff shoulders, her jaw tensed tight. She’s staring daggers at the girl in Jace’s lap.
I nudge her gently. “You good?”
“Totally,” she lies, flashing me a brittle smile.
We drop onto a giant beanbag across the room. Sal sits so close our thighs press together, her hand balled in the blanket between us. She doesn’t say a word about Jace, and I don’t push, but I can tell every bit of her attention is locked onto him.
“Beer?” Luke asks, holding one out toward me.
My stomach clenches. I shake my head a little too fast. “No, thanks.”
The last time I drank was the night everything changed. The night Theo found me, held me, carried me to safety. To his house. I hadn’t thought of that moment in awhile, but now the memory crashes over me. The sadness begins to creep back in.
Sal sees the change in me instantly. She bumps my arm, “Smoke?”
“Yes, please.”
“Jace!” she calls, hand extended.
He doesn’t even look, just sighs and tosses her a sleek black case from the arm of the couch. She catches it one-handed, pops it open, and pulls out a joint like she’s done this a hundred times. Which, knowing Sal, she probably has.
She lights it slowly, her lips parting as she takes a deep, drawn-out drag. Her eyes stay fixed on Jace the entire time. He doesn’t return the look, but the way he shifts in his seat makes it clear that he feels it. Feels her eyes on him.
She passes it to me, and I breathe it in. The tension in my chest loosens. I feel the fog creeping in around the edges of mythoughts, softening everything. My grief doesn’t disappear, but it dulls. It quiets, for a moment at least.
Not long after, a guy I don’t recognize, tall and scruffy, with a smirk that says he knows he’s cute, makes his way over and drops into the beanbag beside Sal.
“You always hang out down here with the rock stars, or just on special occasions?” He asks her, tone low and smooth, a smirk playing on his lips.
She tilts her head, flashing him a flirtatious smile. “Depends. You a rockstar too?”
“Nah,” he says with a grin. “More of a solo act.”
“Mmm, mysterious. I like that,” she says, leaning in towards him, her voice dropping low.
I side-eye her. Seriously?
Across the room, Jace stiffens. The girl on his lap keeps laughing, but his eyes are locked on Sal. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t move, but his eyes sharpen on her, a fire blazing inside their blue depths.
Sal notices and dials up the charm.
She laughs louder, touches the guy’s arm, twirls her hair. Classic moves, all for show. Her attention isn’t on him, it’s on Jace. She’s watching him from the corner of her eye, testing how far she can push.
I nudge her under the blanket. “You’re awful,” I whisper.
Her lips twitch. “I know.”
The poor guy doesn’t even realize he’s a prop in her game.
Jace downs the rest of his beer in one long drink and tosses the bottle onto the coffee table with a loud clink. He doesn’t look our way again, but he doesn’t need to. The tension rolling off him is obvious.
It’s a game.
And they’re both playing.
The night rolls on, the basement buzzing with music, chatter, and chaos. The guys wrestle over the pool table rules,someone tries to beatbox and fails miserably, and for the first time in weeks, I let myself laugh. Likereallylaugh.
