Jealousy (6 page)

“You—you're not—but I—”

Drew touched my chin, making my queasy stomach a little calmer. “You didn't cause anything that happened tonight. I know you like me, and you're honest. If you had kissed Taylor and felt something, you would have told me. Or you could have kept this whole thing to yourself. But that's not
you.
”

“I'd never keep anything like that from you.”

“I know. You're honest, Laur, and that's part of why I like you.” He smiled. “I mean, I really don't want to think about another guy kissing you. Let alone the fact that he's an ex. But it happened, and you came to me with the truth. I'd be pretty dumb and egotistical to stop seeing this girl that I like over a
really
big misunderstanding.”

I raised an eyebrow and touched my pointer finger to my chin. “You like a girl? Who is she?”

Drew laughed. It was the way he laughed that I knew we were okay. His laughter reached deep down into his belly, making his shoulders shake a little. It was the type of laugh that couldn't be faked. His great laugh was one of the things I'd been drawn to when we'd met.

Drew took my hand in his and bubbles tickled my stomach.

“Ready to party, birthday girl?” he asked.

“So ready,” I said. “Full disclosure—Taylor's in there. I invited him because—”

Drew squeezed my hand. “Hey, you don't have to explain that to me. I want to go inside, have fun, and make this an awesome night for you. If Taylor's the guy you've told me about, then we're not going to have a problem.”

I squeezed Drew's hand back, and he reached for the doorknob. Together we stepped out of the hallway. Forcing away any lingering worries, I let Drew lead me to the dance floor.

The way Drew
and I danced, there was no way I could have panicked about Taylor even if I'd wanted to. We'd been moving all over the floor. I'd learned that Drew's dance skills rivaled his riding ones.

I leaned into Drew's ear. “So thirsty,” I said. “You?”

Drew nodded. “I'll get sodas. Mind grabbing snacks?”

“No prob. I'll find you in five.”

We split up, and the music lowered, as did the lights. They were dim enough so the jack-o'-lanterns glowed brighter, the twinkly lights draped around the room seemed
to wink at me, and the room
really
felt like Halloween.

I hadn't seen Taylor while Drew and I had danced. I'd been careful
not
to look for him too often and be rude to Drew. Khloe and Zack had swayed beside Drew and me for a couple of songs. It had been fun to dance with my friends!

Just when I'd started to worry that I hadn't seen Taylor, Lexa had given me the “okay” signal with her fingers when I'd mouthed
Taylor
to her. Instinctively I think I knew that my friends were keeping an eye on Tay and weren't going to let any more surprises occur at my party.

I smiled to myself as I grabbed a black plastic plate, thinking about how much fun I'd had on the dance floor.

I used a ladle to pour candy corn onto my plate. Next, chocolate-chip-and-marshmallow-sprinkled Chex Mix that Jill had created a couple of days ago. A ghost cookie for me. A bat cookie for Drew.

“LT!”

I popped an M&M into my mouth, looking up at Khloe. She slid to a halt in front of me. She'd come so close, I thought she'd topple us over.

“Hey! How are things going with Zack?” I asked.

Khloe smiled. “Amaze! He's perrr-fect! If we're not dancing, he's getting me a drink or snack.”

I danced in place. “Yay! I'm so glad you guys are having fun. I'm getting food, and Drew's on drinks duty.”

Khlo gave me a sideways look. “Tell. Me. Everything.”

I nodded, making a serious face. “I will! But if I did that right now, we'd miss the rest of the party. You'll get the full report tonight—I promise.”

Khloe groaned, then made puppy eyes at me. “At least tell me one thing: Did Drew and Taylor meet yet?”

“Nope. I've been with Drew the entire time until now. I haven't even seen Taylor, but Lexa signaled that things were okay with him a while ago. I hope he's still here.”

Khloe and I turned away from the food, both of us scanning the room.

“It's too crazy in here,” I said a few minutes later. “I don't see Jill or Cole, even.”

“I'm sure Taylor wouldn't leave without saying good-bye,” Khloe said. “But maybe he did want to go without interrupting you and Drew.”

I turned back to the table and picked up my plate again. “I'm just glad that a serious fiasco was avoided and that Drew and Taylor each know the truth.”

Khloe put a handful of cheese popcorn onto a plate. “And I know you—the party would have been ruined if
you felt guilty all night. Instead you're having fun, and so is everyone else.”

I gave KK a one-armed hug. “Thanks to you, Lex, and Clare. You guys saved me during my Taylor thing.”

Khloe gave me a sharp salute. “Sworn to best friendship duty, ma'am.”

Giggling, we separated, and I finished getting snacks. I scanned the chairs for Drew and, thankfully, spotted him at a round table nearby.

“Who's the adorbs guy you came inside with?” Lacey asked, bouncing into step beside me. We had glee club and fashion class together.

“Um, that's Taylor,” I said.

“More deets, Laur!” Lacey jerked her head toward the pool table. “Raquel and, well, all the girls are freaking out!”

I looked at the cluster of girls, who had gathered to watch a pool match.

I took a breath. I had to get used to explaining my relationship to Taylor. No better time than now to get started.

“Taylor's a friend from home,” I said. “He transferred to Canterwood.”

Lacey's glossy coral mouth stretched into a wide grin. “Oh my God, he's going
here
?”

I nodded. “Now you've got the scoop. Talk later?”

I phrased it as a question, but it was more of a statement. We were strides away from Drew, and I didn't want to be discussing Taylor in front of him.

“Sure,” Lacey said, flipping her long hair over one shoulder. “This is the
best
Halloween ever! A new hot guy on campus!” Lacey let out a little squeal and twirled on her heel, heading back in the direction of her friends.

I reached the table where Drew stood next to two chairs.

“Ooh, good choices,” Drew said, eyeing the plate.

“I got to the snacks and desserts and felt like a little kid,” I said. I slid into the chair that he pulled out for me.

He sat next to me. “How?”

I giggled. “There's
so
much candy and treats everywhere. I picked whatever I wanted, and it reminded me of Halloweens when my parents rationed candy to me and my sisters. Otherwise we'd eat our entire loot in one night and get sick.”

Drew laughed and took a sip of one of the glass bottles of root beer he'd gotten for us. “I know exactly what you mean. After trick-or-treating one Halloween, my dad let me have some candy before he put it away. I was probably six or seven, I think.”

“What was your costume?” I asked.

“Pirate,” Drew answered.

We both laughed.

“Aw, did you have an eye patch and fake parrot?”

“I didn't say I was a lame pirate.” He grinned. “My costume even had a plastic sword and stuff that made my teeth look black.”

“Well,
excuse me
,” I teased.

“After my dad went to bed, I found my candy . . . .”

“Uh-oh . . .” I covered my mouth, suppressing a laugh.

“Major. I ate
every
piece. Dad says he found me asleep on my bedroom floor the next morning with candy wrappers stuck to my face.”

I laughed, taking a sip of my drink. “Did you get sick?”

“I'll just say that the next Halloween, I gladly gave my best friend all of my candy.” Drew unwrapped a mini Snickers bar and took a bite. “But I think I got over it. Obviously.”

We grinned at each other.

“Now I'm going to keep an eye on you, Adams. If the candy wrapper pile gets bigger than your head—I'm cutting you off.”

Drew laughed. “I think that's fair.”

His knee brushed mine, and the tingles where we'd touched made me wonder what it was going to feel like when we
kissed.

I slid my gaze over, catching Drew looking at me.

“Tell me about a Lauren Towers Halloween,” Drew said.

“Okay, hmmm . . .” I thought for a few seconds. “In third grade my teacher promised my class that if we all did well on our October vocabulary tests, we'd have a haunted house at our Halloween party at the end of the month.”

“Good incentive to study,” Drew said.

“For sure. We got to have the haunted house. I still remember the orange flyer that went home to our parents, asking for volunteers.”

“Did your parents volunteer?” Drew asked. “I think third grade was the last year I was cool with my dad showing up at school events. Then it was ‘I don't know you!' and I walked a million feet in front of him at all times.”

Laughing, I twisted more in my seat to face him. “Third grade was the year for me too. I really wanted my parents to be at the party that year, but after that I went rogue.”

Drew laughed.

“Mom couldn't because it was during a Friday afternoon and she had to work,” I said. “Dad came.”

“You said he's a writer and your mom's a lawyer, right?”

I loved that he remembered. “Right. I think he bought
Haunted Houses for Dummies
to help him. Dad and a bunch
of other parents worked all day that Friday to set up a haunted house. My friends and I couldn't pay attention to anything—we kept ‘stretching' and looking out the window. Parents were scurrying all over the recess field.”

Drew smiled, flashing white teeth.

“What?” I asked, elbowing him. It was easy to be happy around him. He kept making me laugh.

“I like this story,” he said. “You should be a writer.”

I smiled. “No one's ever told me that before. Now the pressure's on to finish the story well.” I sipped my drink. “
So
, our party was probably a couple of hours away when it started to
rain.
Actually, it wasn't just rain. It was a crazy, ridiculous downpour.”

Drew hung his head. “Not cool.”

“The downpour turned into a thunderstorm. Dripping-wet parents ended up in my classroom. My class freaked. My dad gathered the other parents, and I
knew
the party was going to be awesome. I just knew.”

“Sounds like we both have pretty cool dads,” Drew said.

I nodded. “Dad organized everything, and my class ended up with an amazing haunted house in the gym.” I giggled. “Even the tough guys in my class screamed.”

Squeeeeak!

Drew and I covered our ears. At the front of the room, the guilty culprit gave everyone a please-don't-kill-me smile. Khloe gave the wireless microphone in her hand an exasperated look.

“This mic is the best!” Khloe said, feigning seriousness. “That
squeak
feature totally got your attention. Now get on your feet!”

Everyone laughed.

As I stood, I swept my gaze over the room. There he was. Taylor stood near the front of the room. Four girls from my grade stood beside him. His attention was on Khloe, though, not Lacey and her friends.

No surprise that Tay's insta-popular
, I thought.
He's fitting in, and it's only his first night.

Lacey stepped back and whispered something to Raquel. Raquel nodded, pulled a compact mirror from her black sequin clutch, and passed it to Lacey. Lacey checked her reflection and carefully applied a sparkly pink lip gloss.

“The time has come,” Khloe said, “to bring on the birthday toast!”

“I'M KHLOE KINSELLA,” SHE SAID WITH A
smile. “Roommate of the birthday girl, Lauren Towers. Thank you all for coming, and I hope you've had a fun night. We have to start wrapping up the evening, since I promised we'd be out of the ballroom soon.”

I glanced at the wall clock.
Whoa.
Tonight had gone by so fast.

“After the toast we'll cut the cake. Er, we'll have cupcakes.”

I grinned at my roomie when her eyes landed on me.

“Happy birthday, Lauren,” Khloe said. “It's your first birthday at Canterwood, and I hope it's one that you'll look back on and have good memories of. I'm beyond
honored that you trusted me with planning your party. I'm so lucky that you're one of my closest friends
and
my roommate.”

“Yay, Lauren!” someone cheered, and the room filled with applause.

Khloe clapped too, and minutes seemed to pass before everyone quieted down.