“Wait… what? You mean you’re not bouncing off the walls right now?”
I roll my eyes. “Why would I do that?”
“Did you talk to Clay?”
“Er… not really.” I cringe because she’s going to want an explanation. “I didn’t call him, I just texted him.”
“And?” she says, her voice sounding all excited.
“And what?” I shrug and try to pretend like I’m not upset about it. “And that’s it. I sent him a text and he didn’t reply.”
“Did he call?”
“He didn’t do anything,” I say quickly. “For all I know, he never even saw it. Maybe it got lost in the world of text message signals in space and it was never delivered to his phone.”
“That’s weird,” she says slowly. “I’m sure you’ll hear from him soon.”
“I really doubt it. And I don’t care anymore… I’ve decided to let it go. Team Loco means more to me than a guy, so I’m just going to drop it.”
“Don’t drop it, and don’t be sad, okay? You’ll hear from him. I don’t know what’s taking him so long, but I know he’ll reply. He’s a good guy.”
My heart squeezes. “Can we stop talking about it now?”
“Sure,” Keanna says. “So anyway, when are you getting here?”
“I don’t know,” I say, putting her on speakerphone so I can check my emails on my phone. “Team Loco hasn’t sent me an itinerary for it yet.”
“Oh no, Avery,” Keanna says, her voice worried. “They’re not going to. Did anyone tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
She sighs. “Our Christmas party is just a fun thing we do. It’s not official Team Loco business or anything. That means they won’t buy your plane ticket or send you here. We just invited you over for fun.”
“Oh,” I say, feeling my cheeks turn red. That makes sense… why hadn’t I realized that earlier? “I’ll look up flights now. What airport is closest to you?”
“Houston,” Keanna says. “But then it’s a long drive here, but we can pick you up if you want.”
I search for flights from Dallas to Houston and they’re all booked. My heart sinks. I can only find a few flights at weird hours in the middle of the night but the price is insane. “The cheapest flight I can find is twelve hundred dollars,” I say into the phone as I hold back tears. “I can’t afford that.”
“Well how far is it to drive?”
“What’s your address?”
She gives me her address and I type it into Google, frowning when I see that it’s a six and a half hour drive from me. Not too bad, but I don’t have a car right now. There’s no way my parents would let me borrow my dad’s car for two days, leaving them with no transportation. And I’m not old enough to rent a car, and I don’t have any money to rent a car even if I asked my parents to fill out the paperwork.
“I’m totally screwed,” I say after exhausting all my options.
“Ugh, this sucks,” Keanna says. “I was really, really wanting you to come over. Plus, Clay will be here and we have so many decorations it’s like a romantic winter wonderland over here.” She sighs. “Do you have any friends you could bring with you that have a car?”
I immediately think of Mandy, but there’s no way she’d want to drive six hours with me. Maybe I could beg and convince her. “Maybe,” I say. “Will there be any hot single guys over there? My friend will only come if she thinks she can flirt with someone.”
Keanna laughs. “Totally. All the local motocross guys will be here, and some of Jett’s professional racer friends are flying in. She will have her pick of hot single guys. Except of course, for Clay, because he’s all yours.”
I feel my cheeks turn red. “Let me see what I can do,” I say. “I’ll call you back later.”
“Good luck! I can’t wait for you to come over!”
As soon as I hang up, I’m already regretting this plan. I really doubt I can convince Mandy to drive six and a half hours with me to a party with people she doesn’t know, even if there will be hot guys there. And even if I do—do I want her there? She hasn’t felt like my best friend lately. She’d probably make things feel weird and I wouldn’t know how to act around Clay with her watching. I’ve made the grave mistake of telling her about my crush and she’d no doubt blurt it out in front of him.
