Page 26 of I Would Stay Forever
I cringed and glanced around, hoping neither Colby nor Leah was in here and realizing we were talking about them, but despite Molly’s screaming, nobody was looking our way or shooting us dirty looks. Then again, the room was packed enough to be a fire hazard, so even if they could hear what she was saying, they probably wouldn’t know where we were. I’d never been to a party that was this packed before, but I guess all of North Glen was ready to celebrate the end of the first week of school.
“Colby’s the hot guy from the basketball team,” Paige told Molly. She had to twist awkwardly to look at her without bumping noses since Molly was practically sitting on top of her. Paige had gotten the one seat left on the couch, but there was just enough of a gap between her and the guy next to her that Molly thought she’d have space. She was half on the cushion, but most of her legs were on top of Paige and she was sitting back-to-back with the guy in a way that made me think if he got up, she’d fall right over. At first, I’d wondered if she knew who the guy was—some football player, maybe—but she hadn’t even tried to flirt with him once, so now I was convinced it was just out of convenience.
Molly’s face scrunched up. “I thought he graduated.”
“No, you’re thinking of Connor,” I told her. One of Zoey’s many crushes from last year. She’d genuinely cried after last year’s graduation ceremony when she realized he wouldbe moving to the middle of nowhere in Saskatchewan for university. “Colby’s a junior this year.”
“But you hate younger guys!” Molly yelled to her. This was the first thing that got the attention of the boy her back was pressed to and he spun around to give us an odd look. I guessed that he was an underclassman. I mouthed “sorry”to him so he would stop staring before one of my friends noticed and made a comment.
“Well, it doesn’t matter now anyway, does it?” Zoey retreated. “I swear, I was just talking to him when Leah walked over and gave me this look like I was flirting with her boyfriend. So, of course, I asked if they were dating and he laughed and said no. I swear, I thought she was going to claw my eyes out!”
We all laughed. Zoey had unfortunate luck when it came to boys. This was how half the crushes ended, with her realizing that some other girl was interested or already dating him, with the other half ending in doomed relationships.
“Maybe you need to talk to a guy from another school,” Paige suggested.
Zoey groaned and threw her head back. “That’s even worse!”
I had to agree. It was hard enough to keep up with high school relationships going on in our school—especially for me, since until now, I also had to keep track of the Tiffany and Sebastian love saga—but when you added in people from other schools too, we stood no chance of knowing which boys were single.
“You know Sam—that cute server at Gold Plate Diner?” Zoey asked.
It was amazing how such a simple and innocent question could make my stomach bottom out. Gold Plate Diner. For a moment, I felt like I was back in that alley, watching Dean shove my father and giving him the ultimatum. Then I blinked and I was back at the party with my friends, although I still felt a littlequeasy like I had that night. Zoey still didn’t know what had gone wrong that night. When she suggested we go out to dinner this weekend, I immediately suggested a different restaurant and told her that Gold Plate gave me food poisoning so the thought of eating there again disgusted me. She’d accepted the lie easily and I was grateful for it, but I knew that at some point I was going to have to tell her the truth. I just wasn’t ready to say the words out loud yet or deal with the inevitable questions that would come along with it.
“Well, it turns out he has a girlfriend,” she said, rolling her eyes as if this was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. I grinned a little to myself, but hid it by taking another sip of my drink. She hadn’t talked about Sam in months—not since she left at the beginning of August and fell for that guy at her grandparents’ beach house. She was obviously over both those boys by now if she was on the prowl for a new guy here, but I didn’t point that out. In her mind, it was the end of the world if a guy she had liked at any point in time started dating somebody who wasn’t her. She viewed it as her personal failure, like she somehow hadn’t managed to convince him to start dating her instead, even when she was no longer interested.
“I guess you’ll just have to settle for a Parkhurst boy after all, then,” I said with a dramatic sigh.
Paige perked up. “I heard Ethan Markson likes you!”
Zoey cast her a sharp look. “Where did you hear that?” Her tone was accusing rather than excited, like she could not believe that somebody would dare spread that kind of rumor around.
Paige raised one shoulder in almost a shrug. “From a few different sources, actually. I just didn’t tell you because I didn’t think you were quite that desperate.”
“And I’m not,” Zoey said, crossing her arms. I guess she forgot she was holding a drink, because the liquid jostled and spilled right over the tilted edge of the cup. I jumped back but itwas too late. The red drink had already spilled all over the side of my white shirt. Zoey was drunk enough that her reactions were delayed, but she did raise a hand to her mouth and say, “Oh my gosh, Lavender, I’m so sorry!”
I brushed off her concern and handed her my own solo cup. “It’s fine. I’m just going to go see if I can wash it off in the bathroom.”
There was no chance I was getting the stain out completely, but maybe I could make it look lighter.
“Good luck,” Molly said. “It was like a twenty-minute line.”
I held back a groan as I picked at the wet fabric. I couldn’t just leave it like this—not only would it stain horribly, but it would look like my stomach was bleeding. Why did Zoey have to mix her drink with fruit punch?
“I guess I’ll find a water bottle in the kitchen and try to wash it off like that,” I said. Molly started to get up like she was going to come with me, but I waved a hand, telling her to stay there, and made my way through the crowds of people until I got to the kitchen.
For a moment, I considered just washing it at the kitchen sink, but that would mean having to go shirtless in front of a very large group of people, which was not really what I was looking to do right now. Instead, I grabbed a bottle of water from the counter and glanced out the back window. The backyard was just as crowded as the living room. As I watched, two guys picked up a third one, who looked like a freshman boy, and chucked him into the deep end of the pool. I shook my head and turned away. Going outside there wasn’t going to work, so I guess I was going to have to go out front.
I weaved my way back through the crowd, nodding hello at the few people I knew. Normally, I liked to come to parties with my siblings, but they all had other Friday night plans—Ainsley and Imogen were at a friend’s slumber party and Sebastian washanging out at one of his soccer teammate’s places for “team bonding.” Honestly, I was glad he couldn’t go out tonight, because I had the feeling if he did, he would end up back with Tiffany no matter what he had promised me the other day. The two of them were like magnets—they could never stay too far away from each other.
When I stepped out the front door, I was hit by how much cooler it was out here, even though it was still a warm evening. I hadn’t realized how warm it had gotten inside, though it made sense with how many people were crammed in there.
The house, which belonged to some guy from a different school, was on a cul-de-sac about ten minutes away from my place. The whole street was fairly dark, like most of the owners had left for the weekend, which was probably for the best of everyone given how loud the party was getting. A number of teenagers were spread out along the street as well, sitting on the curbs, riding skateboards in the middle of the street, and one person even looked like they were sleeping on the neighbor’s lawn.
I turned the opposite way from them and slipped between the houses. The other side of the house had a gate into the backyard, but there was nothing over here except tall weeds and an abandoned garden hose. It seemed like the best chance I would get for privacy.
It was dark between the houses and the tall grass tickled my legs as I walked deeper in, trying to find a spot where windows from neither house could see me. Once I felt about ninety-percent sure that nobody could see me, I slipped off the tight long-sleeve shirt that I was wearing. Of course I’d worn a white shirt to a party. I wasn’t sure what I was thinking doing that, especially when I was hanging out with my friends who usually weren’t butterfingers—this moment obviously beingthe exception. Drunk people generally were. And I should have known that this shirt would have gotten stained somehow.
I opened the bottle of water and started pouring it over the stain on the shirt. But since I didn’t have a sink to wash it out or anything to wash it with, I had to just rub at the shirt, hoping the stain would come out. It didn’t work at first, but it did lessen a little bit. I just kept doing the same thing over and over again, alternating between putting the bottle down on the ground so that I could rub the shirt and then pouring a little bit more water on it. I wasn’t going to salvage it completely, but I was hoping to at least lessen the stain. I would look stupid for the rest of the night since I would have a giant wet patch on the side of my body, but it was better than it being bright red.
