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Maddie and Kris accepted a few, disappearing with some football players as Michelle had known they would.

Michelle was solid in that if she came with you she left with you, but she never wanted to leave early.

I finally convinced her to go around midnight, but she grumbled for most of the drive to my car.

“Let’s hang out again soon, okay?” she called as I got into the Porsche.

I waved and agreed, starting the car. I was backing out when a phone call flashed on the car screen on the dash of the car. My phone paired automatically with it from previous uses.

Oh, shit. Carter was calling.

I put the car in park and started looking for my phone, answering from the touchscreen as I did so.

“Hello,” I called out, checking the floor.

“Where the hell are you?” a terse voice spoke quietly and furiously.

I found my phone just under the seat. Ah, so that’s where it went. I was stressed out all night that I’d left it somewhere at the mall. “On my way home,” I said, straightening and buckling up again.

“Where have you been?” his voice was trembling with rage. “I’ve been worried sick.”

I felt bad, because I’d been more than half hoping this would be his reaction. Any attention from him at all, even the bad kind, was addictive to me.

I wanted him to miss me even though I knew it was immature and selfish. “I was giving you guys some space. I went out with my friends.”

He didn’t speak for so long that I wondered if he was still on the line. “How far away are you?”

I calculated. “Twenty minutes, maybe? Around that. Did you guys have fun today? What are you up to now?”

Another long pause. “It was fine,” he said, his tone glacial. “We went to the shark reef, and now we’re watching some movies here. I’ve been calling you for hours and hours. Were you ignoring me?”

“I left my phone in the car by accident,” I said cheerfully. “I just now found it. I’m so relieved. I thought I lost it somewhere. It was bothering me all day.” As I said this I saw that I had missed a dozen calls and several texts from him. “I’m sorry I worried you. I figured you wouldn’t notice if I left since you were so busy today.”

Another long pause. “Well, you figured wrong,” he finally said, his tone odd, like he was trying not to lose it.

I could tell he was more pissed than I’d ever seen him, and I wondered how I should deal with it. Maybe if I ignored it for long enough he’d forget about it? Yeah, I decided to do that. “I’ll be home soon,” I told him. “Will you guys still be up?”

“Yes,” he bit out.

“What are you watching?”

He ignored that question. “What were you doing with your friends?” he asked.

“We went to the mall, and I found an outfit for this party,” I babbled as though he wasn’t going out of his mind on the other end. “I bought it, but I shopped at H&M so I only spent like forty dollars.”

He didn’t respond, so I continued, “I can pay you back.” It was all his money in the account he’d started for me. My own small stash of cash was still in the account my aunt had started for me. “Sorry if I overstepped my—”

“Shut up,” he growled at me. Oh, he was really losing it. I wondered where his friend was and if she was wondering what was wrong with him. He sounded like he was about to rip off his shirt and howl at the moon. “I don’t care what you buy or how much you spend,” he continued in the same awful tone. “I’ve been worried sick about you for hours.”

“I told you I left my phone behind by accident,” I explained again calmly.

The bastard hung up on me.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CARTER

I was having a hard time putting on a good face for Amy as I joined her back on the sofa.