Relying On Ben and Jerry (Waltham #1)

Chapter Thirty-One: And the Aubrey Award Goes To . . .

The moment that my Waltham friends realized what was up, a gathering was planned at the mammoth Yates mansion for that night, none of us even caring that there was school the next morning. Aubrey and I basically had little time to freak out over the fact that Quinton Lancaster was invited and that she had never even seen what he looked like before it was time for us to head out in Aub’s old Cadillac, a car that had not only been t-boned in an accident last year, but had a tree fall on it last month. There wasn’t a scratch to be seen on the car—well, other than the ones that have come out of its million years of usage.

But I didn’t have a car, so we took Cattie Caddie.

To say that Aubrey was impressed by the enormity of Norma’s house was an understatement.

“It has a labyrinth!” she whispered excitedly into my ear, sounding awed. “Dude, the only time I’ve seen one of them in real life is at the Salvador Dali museum, and it’s not even one tenth of the one in her backyard!”

“Yes, Aubs, I’ll ask if you can run around in it,” I replied, rolling my eyes, and she pumped her fist in celebration. I grinned and looped my arm through hers as I guided her through Norma’s house, heading to her room. “So you pumped to see the boy I’ve been geeking out about since the beginning?”

“Just about as pumped as I am to see your outfits,” she told me, appraising my psychedelic shirt and my striped pants with obvious approval in her eyes. “I’ve been wondering when and if you’re going to give up on this dress-up game. You impress me with your massive skills, my friend.”

“I’m having fun with it,” I informed her joyfully, glancing over so she could see the full force of my grin. “I think I’m going to keep it around for a while. At least until the year finishes up.”

“I’m also proud of your abilities to snag yourself the most adorkable guy in the state,” she told me, humming the last song we listened to on the radio, an annoying beat about some girl asking someone to call her, maybe. She skipped a little before shooting me a grin. “I must learn more about this boy. And if you guys aren’t together by the end of the month, it’s going to be all your fault.”

“Mine?” I demanded incredulously, shooting her a scowl. “How so?”

“Because if a guy like that gets away,” she said, “it’ll be because you let him go.”

I bit my lip against a retort, knowing that there wasn’t really anything good enough to say to that. I stopped in front of Norma’s door, where there were flickering lights and loud music and all the signs that Colonel was having fun with this shindig. I sighed heavily and looked back at my best friend hesitantly. “Ready for this?”

“Open the door, you pansy,” Aubrey told me, rolling her eyes.

It took me another second of gathering all the courage I could muster, but I eventually through the door open.

Immediately, Aubrey busted out laughing.

Colonel was hanging off of the large light attached to Norma’s ceiling, hanging upside down and hooting and hollering like he was having the grandest of all times just hanging upside down like a vampire in the middle of his girlfriend’s bedroom. Peter was sitting in the corner building a card castle carefully, his tongue sticking out in between his lips in concentration. Kline and Norma were dancing wildly to whatever was playing on her stereo, singing at the top of their lungs, and Quinton was sitting off to the side, grimacing and just looking overall uncomfortable with everything going on at the moment. He caught sight of Aubrey and me standing dumfounded in the doorway and smiled, relieved, before catching my eye and smiling in a new way. I looked away, blushing, hoping that I didn’t look like a total tool right now.