As soon as the guys see their girls, they rush to hug them and tell them how beautiful they look. I pull my coat closer to my body and look away, trying really hard not to pay attention to the ache in my chest.
After they share sweet kisses, we make our way to the parking lot. Sophie and Damian will ride on his bike—she doesn’t care that the helmet might ruin her hair—and the rest of us will take one of the cars. This time, it’s Carly’s. Ryder sits in the front while the rest of us settle down in the backseat.
The ride takes about twenty minutes. I can already hear the music from blocks away. After Carly finds a parking space amongst the many, many super-rich cars, we get out and stare at the mansion. I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I were born into the rich world like my classmates. Would I like it? It’s not like I would know any better. Not like I would have a choice in the matter. But one thing I do know is that I would never befriend Carly, Sophie, or Addie. And I would never give them up, not for billions of dollars. So I think I’ll stick with being middle class.
“What are you thinking?” Carly puts her arm around me as we stare at the mansion. “How the cost of this house can feed a small country?”
“Just how much it would suck if I were born into a rich family. I wouldn’t have you guys in my life.”
“That’s true.” She squeezes me closer.
“Unless we were all born into rich families,” Addie points out. “Maybe we would be friends.”
“But then you and I would never have gotten together,” Caleb tells her as he closes his arms around her and presses a heartwarming kiss on her temple.
“You think you wouldn’t be hired to be my bodyguard?”
“Maybe I would have been. But there’s no way we would have gotten together.”
“Why not? I would disown my life and everything I knew if it meant I could be with you.”
He smiles at her with nothing but intense, pure love. “I would, too.”
“And that would have been the most epic forbidden love story of all time!” Sophie says.
“Well, I believe everyone is where they’re supposed to be,” Ryder says as we head toward the entrance. “You know, destiny and all that.”
“Same,” Damian says. “As much as it sucks that my dad died, it brought me to this amazing person.” He lifts his hand that’s interlocked with Sophie’s and kisses the back of hers.
Sophie throws her arms around him and buries her face in his chest, muttering how much she loves and appreciates him.
I’m feeling just a bit too much love in the air. I walk ahead of my friends and enter the mansion, blinking at how wealthy the place really is. But at the same time, there’s a homey feel to it. As though the owners want the family to feel completely at home here.
The place is packed with kids. Some must be from other schools because I don’t recognize them. The ballroom is humongous with enough room to dance. There is a table on the side with refreshments and a DJ is playing a sick track. Most of the people here are either dancing, chatting, making out, or playing games.
“Now this is my kind of music,” Carly says as her body starts shaking to the beat. She grabs her boyfriend with one hand and Sophie with the other. “Time to hit the dance floor!” And she drags them along. Sophie has only a second to snatch Damian’s hand before they’re gone from our sight.
Addie laughs. “Sophie didn’t complain this time.”
“I think she has a new appreciation of dance ever since she got together with Damian,” I tell her. “She just wants to let loose and have fun with him, even if she’s not the best dancer in the world.”
Addie tucks one hand through my arm and the other through Caleb’s. “Shall we join them?”
“We shall,” I say.
As we join the others on the dance floor, my eyes survey the area. I don’t see Kylen’s familiar light brown hair. Maybe he hasn’t arrived yet? Or does he not plan to come at all?
I wasn’t sure about his reaction when I brought it up to him yesterday at the rec room. I thought he would be excited that I invited him, but he didn’t seem like that at all. Is he trying to play it cool or something? Or maybe he doesn’t like the idea of hanging out with me at a party?
A sudden thought churns my stomach. What if he thought I was asking him out on a date? Ugh, I want to slap my forehead. I should have told him I meant it as a hang and not a date. Of course he would be reluctant if he thought it was a date. He and I…we…well, let’s just say we’re still only friends at this point. Oh my gosh, did I ruin everything?
“You okay?” Addie asks over the loud music.
“What? Oh, yeah. I’m good.”
I don’t want to lie to my friends, but the last thing I want is to ruin their night. It’s okay if Kylen doesn’t show up. He never promised that he would, and like I said before, he’s just my friend and he doesn’t owe me anything. So it takes everything Ihave to push any negative thought out of my head, and the pain from my heart.
I do have tons of fun with my friends. Carly and Ryder choreograph the most insane but incredible routine right on the spot, which has many of the surrounding kids—including me and the rest of our friends—joining them. I get so exhausted after a while that I leave them to fetch a drink from the refreshment table.
