Pay the Price

Chapter Three: Sport Tech

Tony had disappeared. Wow, the one time I actually want to talk to him, he's gone.

I walked with Karen to where the beverages were and Zoya went to find one of her guy buddies on the track team. I casually glanced around for Jack.

"Allow me." Someone had taken my glass and poured me a cup of punch. I stared up into deep blue eyes.

I breathed. "Jack?" He had messy blonde curls on his head and a boyish smile that I had always loved. Stop that, Jennifer, you don't like him anymore!

He finished with the punch, took a sip, then handed the glass to me and walked away. It took me a moment to realize he was meeting with Blair.

The girl was glaring at me from the kitchen and I turned away so she wouldn't see me blushing about Jack.

"Something wrong?" At first I thought it was Karen, but when I looked up, Tony loomed over me.

I sighed. "You're lucky Jack is actually here, or I would have been pissed at you forever. And, Easton didn't invite me, you did."

Tony smirked. "That was me. Well, we never go to the same parties so I needed to make sure we did that before graduation."

"It's not like we would die if we didn't have. Anyway, thanks for the invite, I need to find Karen."

Tony looked somewhere behind me. "That Karen?"

I turned to see where he was looking and found my friend on the deck with Lane. I widened my eyes in shock. It looked like she was giggling about something Lane had said. I smiled for her, that they were flirting and had a good time, but snickered at the thought of Lane using her for a day, then throwing her away like garbage. Karen deserved someone who was looking for a real relationship.

I eventually decided to let the two talk and went to find Zoya. I was surprised again when I saw Easton leaning over the table in his "cool guy" way. He was flirting! Zoya never really got hit on or anything. She got made fun of sometimes about her skin colour, considering there are only a few other darker- skinned people in our school.

Now, I was stuck by myself.

"I guess it's just you and me." A long arm draped over my shoulders.

I glanced up at Tony and smiled, batting my eyes over dramatically. "Yes, my love." I chuckled, going back to normal. "No, it's you, then there's me, way on the other side of the room." I swing his arm off of me.

He sighed. "Awe come on, Blondie, have a drink. Loosen up a bit. This is a party, not cheer practice." He grabbed my arm and led me to the kitchen where the actual drinks were.

"Oh, no," I said. I may be popular, but it wasn't because I did all of this stuff. "No way."

"Blondie! Blondie! Blondie!" He started chanting quietly.

I stared at him, amused but angry, then huffed in defeat. "Fine. One drink, that's all."

I though I heard him say, 'that's all you'll need,' but I decided to wave it off. He handed me a silver can and I stared at it in disgust. Why am I doing this? This is why you stay away from Tony Anderson.

Before I knew what was happening, Tony had tipped the can up and I had gulped down a big swallow. I scrunched my face in sourness. "How do people drink that all of the time?"

"You get used to it." Easton said behind us. He was still chatting with Zoya. "Hey, Zoya, think I could do track?"

I tuned them out before taking another small sip, watching Tony head to the door. "What, you're leaving? I just opened a beer because you told me to and now you're bailing?"