Page 143 of Betting on You

I literally didn’t care.

Before I could answer, Eli asked, “Are you still pissed at Sampson?”

“What?” I looked at his bow tie and wondered how much he knew. “What do you mean?”

“When he had people over, I asked if you were coming, and he said no because you were pissed at him.”

God, that’s right—he was having people over the day after blanket fort night. I guess I’d forgotten. I gave him a noncommittal “Yeah.”

“That’s okay, you’re not alone,” he said, smiling. “Austin was so fucking livid when Charlie called off the party the night before that I still don’t think they’re talking.”

The night before?“There were going to be two parties?”

For some reason that irritated me, thinking of Charlie being a party-bro on the same weekend he broke my heart.

He shook his head. “It was supposed to be Friday night. We brought the beer over, we told everyone, and it was just about to pop when Charlie got a text and was suddenly likeI gotta go—no party.”

I blinked. “Wait, what? What happened?”

He shrugged. “No idea. He goes,Something important came up and I have to go, and he kicked us out.”

“But we went to Dave and Buster’s instead and it was super fun,” Dana said, “so it turned out okay.”

I heard a roaring in my ears. Had Charlie called off a party to go get me at Walgreens? I felt a little light-headed as I remembered how quickly he’d said he was on his way when I asked for a ride.

No questions, noI have to rearrange some things, just a solidOn my way.

God. That couldn’t be what happened, could it?

But as quickly as that thought formed, the thoughtSo he could “get” younegated the action.

Shit.

I made it about an hour after that, but as soon as they played “The Last Time,” I had to leave. The entireRedrerelease reminded me of Charlie, and just hearing it made me think of pine trees and tree-climbing boys.

I told Nekesa that I didn’t feel well and was getting an Uber, and even though she was sweet and offered to take me, I could tell she was having the best night of her life and didn’t want to ever leave.

Good for her.

I let out a sigh as I walked through the enormous lower level of the downtown convention center. I felt like I’d somehow failed atfun, and now I had to take the Uber of shame back to Scott’s house. I was almost out the door when I saw two security guys standing in the way of someone who appeared to be trying to get in.

“You have to be a West High student, sir. We can’t let you in,” the bigger of the two guys said.

“I don’t want to go to the dance. I just want to fucking talk to someone.”

Oh my God! My pulse took off at the sound of that voice. Was thatCharlie?

I stopped walking and craned my neck to try to see around the guards. Was Charlie here, trying to crash our formal?

“We can’t let you in, kid,” the smaller guy said. “You need to leave—”

“I just need two minutes,” he said, sounding agitated.

“Oh my God, Charlie?” I took a step to the right, andholy shit, it was definitely him. My body betrayed me by setting free a hundred butterflies in my belly as I drank him in, letting my eyes soak up the formal wear, as well as the dark eyes and thick hair that I’d missed so fucking much, it was suddenly hard to breathe.

Dammit—my reaction annoyed me, and I said, “What are you doing? Knock it off before you get arrested.”

His head whipped around, and he looked at me like he couldn’t believe his eyes. His hair was messed up, his cheeks a little red as he blinked, stepped back from the security duo, and said, “Bailey?”

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