Summer

Chapter 11

"There you are!" Jacob says when he sees me coming down the stairs. "Where were you this whole time?"

"I...uh...," I struggle to find words as I point to the stairs. Great, now Noah has me tongue-tied. As if consuming my mind wasn't enough.

Jacob looks at me, perplexed, but only because he's past the point of drunk and trying to process what it is that I'm saying. To be honest, I don't even know what it is that I'm saying. What I do know is that telling Jacob that I just spent the last 30 minutes with the town's renowned asshole isn't the best move to make.

"Stay here," I instruct him, resting my hands on his shoulders to keep him in place. "I'm going to find Cassie."

It doesn't take long to spot her. She's on the dance floor. Surprise, surprise.

"Heeeey," she says as I approach her. I feel weird interrupting her little dance break with Kyle, but I want to leave and he's the one with the car — and the only other sober person in this place besides me, for that matter.

"When do you guys want to leave?" I have to shout in her ear. The music is so loud that I can't even hear myself speak.

"What'd you say?" she yells back.

"I said, 'what time do you guys want to leave?'"

"Oh crap. When did it get to be 2 am?" Kyle shrieks once he looks at his watch. "Babe, we need to get out of here. I have to be up in 6 hours for practice. All it takes is one lateness for coach to kick my ass off the team."

"You're fine ass," Cassie says as she covers her mouth with her hands and giggles at her own joke.

"Find your brother and meet me at the car in 5," Kyle tells me. "I'll take care of Cass."

I search the room for Jacob when my second to worst nightmare appears.

Justin.

He's walking towards me like he's got something to say, and I don't know why, but I feel nervous.

Avoid eye contact, I tell myself. But funny enough, I do the opposite. I might as well wave my hand right in front of his face.

"Sophia, right?" he says, pointing his finger at me.

Normally, I'd be too shy to call him out, but him and his buddy Noah are up to something. I mean Justin wanted me at his party, but then Noah tried to kiss me. The two just don't add up.

"That's right," I say. "Justin, is it?" I squint my eyes at him, and he nods with a clueless smile. "I don't know what kind of twisted game you and your boy Noah are playing, but why don't you two just leave me out of it and find someone else to pick on? Preferably, someone who can actually tolerate you guys for more than 10 seconds."

"Game?" he scrunches his face and asks innocently. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Don't play dumb," I state, moving towards him until his back hits the wall so that I have him cornered.

"I swear, I don't know what you're talking about."

"If you wanted me here so badly, you could've just asked me yourself. I mean if you're interested in me or whatev-"

"Hold up, hold up, hold up," he waves his hand in the air and cuts me off. "You seem like a cool girl, but I really don't know what you're talking about."

"You told Noah to invite me to your party," I explain.

"No," he shakes his head in slow motion. "I didn't. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have you here, but I didn't tell Noah shit. He told me."

"Huh?" is the only word I can make out at this point.

"Yeah, yesterday at Val's. Noah told me that he was going to invite you to my party."

Wait a second, Noah wanted me here?

To say that I've just humiliated myself would be an understatement, and I end up apologizing to Justin for acting like a psycho. He was super nice about it — or, at least, pretended to be.

I finally find Jacob after circling the party multiple times. Long story short, he was in a room making out with some blonde-haired girl.

And when we make it home, I slip into my pajamas and crawl into bed, fully aware that I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight...again.