“She won’t ask. I already called her and told her I was going to miss rehearsal tonight because I don’t feel good.”
“And what if your dad finds out? If he asks me where you are, I won’t lie.”
“He won’t find out. He’s too busy working on Boone and Emma’s house trying to get it ready to sell.” He was spending so much time at the house Cheyenne had started to hope that he was reconsidering buying it. Nathan dashed those hopes.
“Well, he won’t have to worry about that anymore. I heard that Miss Applegate got in a fight with her daddy and he kicked her out. So she’s buying Emma’s house and is going to live there.”
Cheyenne froze with the door halfway open and turned to him. “Miss Applegate is buying the pink house?”
Nathan nodded. “My mom and her friends took over a big bunch of stuff as housewarming gifts the other day.”
Cheyenne felt thoroughly disappointed. She’d had so wanted to live in a house. Not an apartment. Or even a trailer. But a permanent place that she could call home.
“Are you okay?” Nathan asked.
She pushed her dream away and nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine. Be sure you don’t forget to pick me up.” When Nathan didn’t say anything, she looked over at him. “You’ll be here, right? Joey can’t take me home. My dad might see him.”
Nathan turned away from her. “Yeah. I’ll be here.”
She got out of the truck and slammed the door, then headed up the path. The closer she got to the front door, the more her stomach churned and her knees shook. She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.
No one answered—probably because they couldn’t hear it over the loud music and laughter coming from the house. She was wondering what she should do next when the door swung open and a boy pushed past her and threw up in the bushes. Another boy followed him out laughing.
“I told you not to challenge the Beer Pong Champion of the World.” He slapped his bent-over friend on the back before he noticed Cheyenne. “Hey, you here for the party?” When she nodded, he waved a hand. “Why are you standing here? Go on in.”
She glanced back to see if Nathan’s truck was still there. If it had been, she might have raced back to it. But Nathan was gone. She gathered her courage and stepped inside.
The music and laughter were even louder inside. Thankfully, not a single person in the living room even glanced her way. They were all too busy talking and sipping from red Solo cups.She looked around for Joey, but didn’t see him. She weaved her way through the people and headed into the next room. It was a large game room with a ping-pong table. People were standing around it playing some kind of a drinking game. A girl stumbled into her and spilled beer on Cheyenne’s sweater.
“Oops-sie!” The girl giggled. “Sorry.”
Cheyenne brushed at her sweater, hoping she wouldn’t smell like beer when she got home. “That’s okay. Do you know where Joey Mac is?”
The girl swayed. “I sure do.” She hooked an arm around Cheyenne’s shoulders and leaned in so close that she and Cheyenne bumped foreheads. “I just saw him head up-shares. I mean, up-shares.” She giggled as she dropped her arm and staggered away.
Cheyenne intended to wait for Joey to come back down. But then two guys started trying to get her to play the drinking game.
“Come on. It’s fun.” A big football player, who was in her chemistry class, shoved a ping-pong ball at her. “You get the ping-pong ball in the cup on the other side, and they have to drink. They get it in our cup, we have to drink.”
She had tried one of her dad’s beers once. It was nasty. She shook her head. “Thanks, but I need to . . . go to the bathroom.” She turned and headed for the stairs. There were fewer people on the second level. Three giggling girls came out of a bathroom surrounded by a cloud of smoke that didn’t smell like cigarettes and two boys were sitting on the bed in one of the bedrooms playinga video game. The other three doors down the long hallway were closed. Cheyenne was too chicken to knock and see if Joey was inside.
What was she doing here? Nathan was right. She shouldn’t have come. She wasn’t friends with any of these people. She didn’t like beer. And she didn’t like the loud rap music blasting from the sound system. And she didn’t like to smoke—cigarettes or pot.
Then one of the doors opened.
There was Joey Mac.
His blond hair was mussed like he’d just woken up from a nap, but he still looked breathtakingly awesome in a blue sweatshirt that matched his eyes. Those eyes widened when he saw her.
“Hey, Cheyenne! I didn’t think your father would let you come.” He smiled brightly, but it faded quickly. “He’s not going to show up and kick my ass, is he?”
She shook her head and tried to think of something to say. “You look nice.” Nice? She mentally cringed.
Joey smiled. “You look nice too. Is that a new sweater?”
He noticed! He noticed her sweater. She was about to say “yes” when Jen Jacobs stepped out of the room. Jen was a cheerleader and the homecoming queen and the most popular girl in school. But she wasn’t stuck up. She was really nice. She was dating Brad Stanford, who was a football star and had graduated the year before. Everyone knew they were going to get married some day.
But if that were the case, what had Jen been doing in the bedroom with Joey? And why was her hair mussed too? And why did Joey slip his arm around Jen’s waist and pull her closer?
