Midnight Rose (completed)

Chapter 15

My week went by impossibly slow waiting for Wes to return. Luckily, I only had to sit through a few more hours of school and then he would be home.

"Are you excited for the party tonight?" Kendra asked as she took a bite of her sandwich.

My eyes darted from my plate of barely touched salad up to Kendra. I had completely forgotten about the party.

"You forgot, didn't you?" She rolled her eyes. "Figures."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped defensively.

"As if I even need to say it." She dropped the rest of her sandwich onto her plate.

"Sorry. I've just been—"

"Busy, I know," she cut me off.

My absence was definitely not going unnoticed. "I might have forgotten, but I'm still going. That should count for something, right?"

Her pout faded. "Fine, but you better not ask to leave early."

"Are you still bringing Elijah?"

"Yes."

I frowned disapprovingly.

"Don't," she said before I could say anything. "You pinky promised to be a good friend. At least try to like him," she begged.    

"Look, we don't know anything about Elijah, except that he's in college and lives in a nice house in Bayview. We don't know if it's his or his parents'. Does he even have parents?" I took a bite of my salad.

"Really? That's your case? Abby, everyone has parents. He has parents."

I turned my head toward the center of the room and clashed gazes with Natalie and her clique. Natalie liked to be the center of attention, so she and her clique always sat in the middle of the cafeteria.  "Why is Natalie staring at us?" I chewed on my plastic fork.

"Because she's envious of the beauty radiating from our table." Kendra glowered.

"Did she see you talking to one of her boyfriends again?" Natalie was a real piece of work, and it took until eighth grade for me to see her true colors. "She's coming over," I hissed.

Natalie swung her hips as she passed by the football players, blowing them a kiss, and stopped in front of our table with a couple of her lackeys standing a few feet behind her.

"Hi, girls," she sneered, peeling back her red stained lips to reveal her bright white teeth.

"What do you want, Natalie?" I sat up straight.

"I'm sure you heard about my party tonight at the lake house." She focused on her nail polish rather than us.

"Maybe." Kendra's snotty retort made me proud.

"Good. Well, I hope you're coming. You wouldn't want to miss it. It's the biggest party of the year." Her hazel eyes glared at us.

"We might be," Kendra lied.

We had planned on going all week.

"Great. See you tonight. Eight o'clock." She strolled out of the cafeteria.

I leaned in close to Kendra. "Why does she care if we go tonight?"

One of Natalie's followers bent down. "Because the football team refused to go if Kendra wasn't there." She giggled and then caught up with Natalie and her group.

We both looked over at the rambunctious table of boys and shared a winning laugh.

"Something tells me you won't have a problem finding a date for the Winter Wonderland dance."