“Still be outside avoiding the party?”
Tyler chuckles, a faint blush coloring his cheeks. “Yeah. I’m not feeling socializing with a bunch of drunk teenagers.”
“Yet here you are, socializing with a wallflower.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
I raise an eyebrow playfully. “Go get your water, Tyler. I’ll be here.”
He salutes, offering a small smile before heading back into the house.
Just like that, I realized what just happened. A strange moment of openness with someone I barely know. It’s odd–how easy and comfortable I was able to open up about my thoughts and insecurities. I don’t typically do that, especially with strangers. Those thoughts are saved for my therapist.
“What am I thinking? I probably scared him away,” I mutter under my breath, rolling my eyes at my overthinking. Why am I even worrying about this? It’s not like Tyler is some super important person in my life. He’s just a guy I happened to run into twice already.
But I can’t shake off the familiarity in Tyler’s manner, a sense of ease that makes it feel like we’ve known each other for a long time. How is that even possible after just one conversation?
“Serena! There you are!” Alli calls in a yell, the urgency in her voice slicing through my thoughts. “We need to go!”
“Go? Why?”
“The police are down the street, we need to get out of here!” Without hesitation, she takes my wrist and pulls me along, darting through the yard toward her parked car. In less than five minutes, in between dodging the hurdles of teenagers rushing to leave, we’re in her car and the lake house is out of sight.
We speed away from the party, and I catch myself stealing glances back at the house, wondering if I’ll ever see Tyler again.
“What just happened, Alli?”
We’re back on the main road now, Alli turns on her blinker to exit onto the highway. “That, chica, was your first lake party.”
“Thatjustgot shut down by the police.”
Alli shrugs like it’s an everyday occurrence around town. “It happens.”
“Like, at every party?”
“Nah, not all the time.”
Taking a deep breath, I suddenly burst into laughter, with Alli joining in. “Welcome to the best era of your life.”
Chapter 5
Tyler
I wasn’t planning on going to that party. In addition to my dating hiatus, I’m pausing parties. It’s all about my plan to focus on school, getting ready for college applications, and taking care of Harper when Dad’s busy working. I had my whole night mapped out: play restaurant with Harper till Dad came home, do a bit of gaming, and just relax for once.
Come on man, it’s the annual lake party. Just this one time and then you keep on keeping on.
Parties aren’t my scene anymore. At least I convinced myself of it. Yet there I was, standing outside that lake house, surrounded by chaos and loud music because Beckham talked me into it. Then I saw Serena out on the deck.
She was admiring the lake. I caught her side profile from where she stood, she looked so peaceful and out of this world gorgeous. It’s weird how someone’s side profile could draw me like a magnet and make me forget my plans.
The conversation we had was unexpected. Comfortable, we opened up, talked about feelings and whatnot. It’s not often I open up to strangers, let alone in the middle of a party. But Serena felt different. There was something genuine about her, something that made me want to linger in that conversation a little longer.
You just find a way to live without them.
Do you ever feel the need to be perfect?
I hate making mistakes.
