Vic’s smile returned, and his eyes drifted behind me.
‘Here he comes. Play along – we don’t need to make it awkward.’
Gabe walked up beside me, putting an arm around my shoulders. My body tried not to cringe away from him as I caught Vic’s eyes on the touch. His smile dropped a bit.
‘What are you guys talking about?’ Gabe asked.
‘The decorations,’ Vic said. ‘You did an amazing job, babe.’ He planted a kiss on Gabe’s lips. Gabe’s eyes darted to me for a second – gauging my reaction? – before returning to the decor.
‘Thanks! I still have a lot to do, though, and it’d be better if my parents were around to actually help.’
I forced the sad muscles in my face to smile and held my cup up. ‘But then we wouldn’t be here having this party.’
‘Hear, hear,’ Vic said. We toasted and drank.
‘I’m going to find Ava and Morgan,’ I said, waving as I went back out around the side of the carriage house. But I didn’t get far. When I took out my phone to text them, I saw that Ava had sent a message to the group chat saying that she and Kevin were going to make out in Morgan’s car. That thought conjured the image of Vic and Gabe kissing in the darkness. Removing their costumes. Hushed whispers and gasps.
My stomach rolled, and now the tears really started coming. I ran down the side of the carriage house, around the back, away from prying eyes. The music had faded, blocked by the structure. I was at the bottom steps of the carriage house’s apartment.
I took a deep breath, held it, then let it out until the pounding in my ears subsided. I took out my phone and brought up the self-facing camera. My makeup was smeared from my tears. I used the sleeve of my seafoam-green polyester jacket to wipe off as much as I could.
Thank God for wash-and-wear.
When most of it was gone, I checked my phone again. Morgan’s text said she was hanging with some other girls from school, so I didn’t feel bad just staying by myself for a bit. But then I heard footsteps. Someone was coming. Anxiety filled my stomach as I imagined Gabe and Vic sneaking away to the carriage-house apartment. I didn’t want to see that, so I got up and patted my face to make sure any tears were gone, just as the person rounded the corner.
Thankfully, it wasn’t Gabe or Vic. It was someone else. Tall and broad-shouldered, wearing sunglasses and a blue FBI windbreaker.
‘Hey, Tommy!’ Brad Waldorf. My chest lightened a bit. ‘I thought I recognized that prom getup.’
He would, because the last time he had seen me in it he was taking it off me in Sophie Farnsworth’s third-floor bathroom.
‘Hey, Brad. Or … Agent Waldorf, I guess?’
‘No, no, it’s …’ He did some kind of kung fu move, sloshing his drink into the grass as he kicked. ‘Burt Macklin, FBI.’ He gave me a goofy grin as he stood straight.
I shook my head. ‘Sorry. Is it from a movie?’ Gabe would probably get it.
Brad took off his sunglasses and tucked them away in the jacket. ‘Nah,Parks and Rec. It’s a show. Chris Pratt played him.’
Why did Brad have to choose to be the worst Marvel Chris?
‘Chris Pratt was an FBI agent in a TV show?’
Brad waved his hand. ‘He wasn’tactuallyFBI …’ I sat on the step, and he gave me a quick rundown of how Andy Dwyer role-played as Burt Macklin. It made me laugh, and I felt a little better.
‘Can I get you a drink?’ he offered.
‘No, thanks. I think I’ve had enough.’ I poured out my drink onto the grass.
‘Cool, cool …’ He got fidgety and took a sip from his own cup. Still shy Brad, trying not to seem too eager. Or maybe he was trying to respect my boundaries. But I didn’t want him to respect my boundaries tonight. Screw boundaries.
‘Brad, do you want to make out?’
He grinned and said quietly, ‘Hell yeah.’
This is better, I thought. My head was swimmy, and Brad’s hands were all over me. Groping and caressing, a potent blend of soft and hard. His tongue moved somewhat overzealously, but I was feeling better. He tasted like Sprite and the almost gasoline flavor of the weed pen he had been smoking. And despite everything that had happened earlier, my heart still managed to race with excitement. Probably because – among other things – Brad was a fantastic kisser.
He pressed his body to mine and pushed me up against the back of the carriage house. His lips moved down to my neck, raking his teeth against my skin but not biting down, and I shuddered, biting back a moan.
