Page 47 of I Would Stay Forever
“I swear I don’t spend all my time outside. Not that I’m against the outdoors or anything, but really just two coincidences.”
He grinned at me and I realized he’d been joking yet again. Why was I acting so stupid tonight? But rather than making fun of me, he tilted his head, once again telling me to sit. I hesitated, still not sure that it was a good idea, but I finally decided that I would seem way too rude if I kept standing, so I sat. I regretted it a moment later, though, because as soon as I sat down, I made eye contact with a girl across the party.
“Oh no,” I muttered. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that I’d been mistaken, or at least, that she hadn’t noticed me. But when I opened my eyes again, Dean had a pained look on his face and Tiffany was striding toward us. She was wearing four-inch heels that were sinking into the muddy grass with every step, but she was walking with such purpose that it barely seemed to be slowing her down.
“How are you?” she asked in a sickly sweet tone as we walked up. Then, without waiting for me to stand up or to try to greet her back at all, she grabbed my shoulders and planted a kiss on each of my cheeks. I tried not to gag. “It is so good to see you! And you too, Dean. Wow, are your muscles even bigger than they were last week?”
Her voice was high-pitched and fake, and for a second, I couldn’t tell if she was trying to make fun of Dean or flirt with him. He seemed bemused as he looked down at his arms and then back up at her and said, “No, I don’t think so.”
“Well, all those workouts must be doing you something good,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. She tapped her fingers lightly on her skirt and then looked around. “So, uh, where’s your brother, Lav?”
There were many things I was happy to go without when Tiffany and Sebastian were broken up, but that nickname was at the top of the list.
“I’m not sure,” I said, even though I’d just seen him inside. Telling her where he was would be like throwing him into the lion’s den without a weapon. “I don’t know if he’s here.”
The smile slipped from her face. “You mean you came to a party without him?”
I raised my eyebrows at her. “Why wouldn’t I? I’m not his keeper.”
Of course I knew that Sebastian was here, and it was a fair enough assumption that we would go to the same party since we went to the same school, and therefore heard about the same events. But I hated the insinuation that I couldn’t be here without him, as if that was the only reason I had to leave the house.
She stared at me for a long minute, looking like she was weighing whether to leave me, then turned to Dean. “Well, you probably know, right, Mr. Footballer? I’m sure you and Sebastian never go anywhere without each other. You’re, like, basically attached at the hip.”
Dean stared at her, his mouth slightly agape. He looked like he genuinely had no idea what to say to that. Or maybe he was just struggling to process her calling him Mr. Footballer. I wondered whether she was this flirty with him when she waswith Sebastian too or if it was reserved just for moments like this when she needed something.
“I thought you and Sebastian were broken up,” I jumped in. She turned to look at me, her mouth almost twisting into a sneer. I just blinked back innocently.
“Who said that?” she snapped.
“My brother. You know, the one who broke up with you?”
She huffed. “He always says we’re broken up but he never means it. He always comes crawling back to me eventually.”
She must have been going insane in this breakup, now that it had been over a week. I thought of Sebastian that night, promising me he would never go back to her. Part of me wanted to rub it in her face. Part of me just felt bad that I had to. She was so oblivious to what was going on in front of her face.
“Well, I don’t know where he is. And even if I did, I think he’s moved on anyway.”
Tiffany’s face hardened and I cheered internally. It was nice to feel free to talk to her this way, now that I knew she and Sebastian were done for good.
“What does that mean?” She tried to keep her voice level but I could hear the venom behind the words.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dean looking at me with interest as well. I knew I was going to have to tread carefully here. I didn’t know anything about Sebastian and Nora, and it was possible that I was reading too much into him inviting her here. But Tiffany needed to learn that Sebastian wasn’t just waiting around to get back together with her.
“Oh, you know, I just saw him kind of talking to this girl at school,” I said airily. “She was really pretty. I’m not sure of her name, but I think she’s also a brunette, like you. Maybe he has a type.”
If looks could kill, hers would right then. I hadn’t been planning on telling her who I thought Sebastian might beinterested in, both because I wasn’t sure if I was right and because I couldn’t say it in front of Dean, but if I’d been planning to, the expression on her face would have made me decide against it. She looked like she was out for blood.
“As if he thinks he can do better than me,” Tiffany spat.
I shrugged. “Maybe he thinks he can find a better girlfriend who won’t cheat on him every other day.”
She pointed an accusing finger at me, almost jabbing me in the eye with her sharp nail. “I never cheated on your brother.”
I grabbed her hand in mine and pushed it back down to her side. As she stared with fire in her eyes, I reminded her, “You can’t really twist history now. Remember who was the one to catch you in the supply closet?” I saw someone walking toward us out of the corner of my eye, and smiled devilishly when I realized it was Ashton. “Oh look, your other boyfriend’s waiting.”
She spun around so quickly that I thought she might get whiplash, probably assuming that I was saying Sebastian was there. When she saw Ashton, her face just grew even angrier. She glared at me, then she stomped off, her stupid heels getting stuck in the mud all the way back.
Dean leaned in close to me, his chest pressing into my arm. His breath tickled my ear as he murmured, “That was mean.”
I turned my head toward him, just enough that I could see his face and blinked slowly. Had he always been willing to sit this close to me? Had he always liked to whisper in my ear as he’d done in class and at the soccer match the other day? I found it hard to believe that I’d just forgotten about all the previous times he’d done this before this week—but if he hadn’t, it made me wonder if something had changed for him as well.
