Nightstruck (3 page)

I was packing up my backpack after school when Piper suddenly appeared at my side, leaning against the bank of lockers and frowning. I jumped a little when I saw her, and her frown deepened.

“I've been standing here for like five minutes,” she said. “I was beginning to think I had to do a backflip to get your attention.”

I forced a grin that felt awkward as I hoisted my backpack and closed my locker. “Sorry. I'm a little preoccupied.”

“No kidding?”

I gave her a dirty look, thinking now she would surely ask me what was wrong. I still hadn't decided what to tell her, though I was leaning toward the same cat story I'd told the police and my dad. She'd talked me through some pretty awful times as my parents' marriage had broken up. I started lots of those conversations in tears, and they mostly ended with me calm and smiling. Even laughing sometimes. I could have used a good dose of her sunny outlook right now, but I didn't have the guts to tell her the truth. She had always been very accepting of me, but I didn't know how any sane person could accept this particular story.

“I'm going to head over to Rare Vintage and do a little shopping before I go home,” she said. “Wanna come with?”

Rare Vintage is a vintage clothing store Piper was in love with. It was within walking distance of our school—not that it mattered, since Piper's parents had given her a Volvo for her sixteenth birthday. My parents, on the other hand, had told me in no uncertain terms that if I wanted my own car I had to earn the money to buy it myself. They both grew up poor and made huge successes of themselves—my mom is a corporate lawyer and my dad the youngest police commissioner in Philly's history—and they thought giving me things they couldn't have afforded at my age would spoil me. Never mind that, without a car, my commute to school was pure hell, involving a couple of long walks to and from the train station as well as a thirty-minute train ride.

“I can't,” I told her, making a regretful face even though Rare Vintage is not my favorite place. Maybe Piper has enough extra cash lying around to drop on fancy beaded flapper dresses she'll never wear, but I don't. “I'm grounded.”

Except for my dad confiscating my phone and not letting me use the Internet, being grounded wasn't that big a deal for me. Most of my schoolmates lived out in the suburbs, and with me not having a car, it was really hard for me to hang out with them outside of school. On most days, I went straight home, and being grounded wasn't going to change that. Though if I weren't grounded, I'd have gone to Rare Vintage just as a chance to spend more time with Piper. She had about a bazillion friends, and getting a spot on her social calendar was something of a challenge.

Piper raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You've been getting into trouble without me?” she asked with mock incredulity. “How
could
you?” She lowered her head and put a hand to her sternum as if heartsick.

I laughed and let a little of the tension ease out of my shoulders. Even if I couldn't get myself to confide what had happened last night, maybe spending time with her—even if it was only a few stolen minutes—was the best thing for me.

Piper glanced at her watch. “What time is your train?” she asked.

“Three thirty,” I told her, not looking forward to the long, cold wait on the platform. It was still in the twenties out, and the train platform was open and windy. The colder and more miserable the weather, the less likely the damn train would come on time.

“Hmm. I bet if I give you a ride home, I can get you there with time to spare.”

I bit my lip, thinking about it. I knew my dad. He would still be at work when I got home, but since I was grounded, he would definitely call and make sure I was at home when I was supposed to be. And Piper was a little fuzzy on the meaning of punctuality. Chances were that, if I went with her, I'd be home late even with the ride.

“If we don't beat the train home,” she wheedled, “you can always tell your dad it was late. It's not like it's never delayed or anything.”

“True,” I said. My dad would never have to know I'd defied him. And it would feel good to give this unfair punishment the respect it deserved.

Piper didn't wait for my answer, just slipped her arm through mine and gave me a tug toward the parking lot.

*   *   *

We weren't in the store more than about five minutes before Piper's phone rang, and I knew immediately by the goofy look on her face that the call was from her current boyfriend, Luke. I hadn't managed to have a single boyfriend yet, myself—going to an all-girls school and not having a car combined to make meeting boys really tough—but Piper went through them like popcorn, one moment head over heels in love, the next bored and looking for a new adventure.

Piper gave me an apologetic smile before retreating to one of the changing rooms so she could have a private conversation with Luke, leaving me browsing the racks aimlessly.

I was the one who introduced Piper to Luke, though I kind of regretted it. There's a gated courtyard behind my house, and Luke lives in the house across the courtyard from me. I'd had a crush on him for forever, but he never showed any sign of being interested in me in that way. For my seventeenth birthday, my dad had hosted a cookout in the courtyard. Piper was there, of course, but I'd also scraped up the courage to ask Luke. When he'd said yes, I thought maybe there was some glimmer of interest after all. But then he'd come to the party, and he'd met Piper, and that was that.

I'd never told Piper about my crush, so it wasn't like she intentionally stole the boy I was interested in. But I couldn't help a little twinge of jealousy every time I saw them together. I kept waiting for them to break up—they'd been together almost four months already, which was a record for Piper—but so far they were going strong. So strong that she was on that phone with him
forever.
I could hear her giggling from the back room as I kept glancing at my watch. Time was ticking away, and even if we left right that moment, I was going to have to lie to my dad and tell him my train was late.

I finally grew impatient and stomped back to the dressing room, pulling the curtain open and giving Piper a meaningful look before tapping my watch. She lowered the phone from her face for a second to glance at the time, and her eyes went wide.

“Oh, shit!” she said, raising the phone once more. “Sorry. I lost track of time. I've gotta go.”

I couldn't hear whatever it was Luke said to her on the other end of the line, but it made her blush and smile. “I love you, too,” she said.

I turned my back to her so she wouldn't see the sour face I made. There's nothing quite like hearing your best friend saying “I love you” to the boy you've had a secret crush on for years. Maybe I shouldn't have kept it secret. Piper had certainly made no secret about her attraction when she'd met him. She'd flirted with him from the moment I introduced them, and he'd lapped it up.

But then, Piper was beautiful, and witty, and brimming with self-confidence. How could Luke
not
have fallen for her? And why would he settle for an ordinary, socially awkward shy girl like me when he could have Piper? Even if I'd had the guts to tell him I liked him, and even if he liked me back, Piper would have dazzled him.

Maybe if you'd told Piper you wanted him, she wouldn't have made a play for him,
I reminded myself. Hell, if I'd told her, she'd most likely have thrown herself into a quest to hook me up with him.

Maybe that's what I'd been afraid of. If she'd tried to play matchmaker and it didn't work, I'd have been utterly humiliated. And with Luke living so close, I'd have my nose rubbed in that humiliation practically every day.

No. Better for him to be with Piper, even if it did make me jealous. Jealous was better than humiliated.

Piper finally got off the phone, and we hurried to her car. “I'm so sorry,” she said as we piled in. “You should have come and interrupted me sooner. You know how I am with time.”

I snapped my seat belt closed while she started the car. She was right, of course. I
should
have interrupted her sooner. But I hadn't, and it was too late to change that.

“It's okay,” I told her, insisting to myself that it was. I'd let her talk me into missing the train because I wanted to spend time with her. Instead, I'd spent my time browsing alone through a store I had no interest in while she talked on the phone. The cold, hard truth was that although Piper was my best friend, I wasn't hers. If she were to disappear from my life, I'd be devastated; if I were to disappear from hers, she'd be sad for a while, then get over it. When you make friends as easily as she does, you just don't get as attached.

“No, it's not okay,” she said, surprising me. “I was being rude and inconsiderate, and I'm sorry.”

I sighed. Sometimes Piper annoyed the hell out of me, but she was still a nice person and a good friend. I'd just have to learn to be more assertive with her. She'd gotten off the phone the minute I'd pointed out how late it was. If I'd done that fifteen minutes earlier, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

“Hey, I know you forget the rest of the world exists when you're talking to Luke,” I told her with a smile. “It's my job to remind you.”

Mentioning Luke brought the smile right back to her face, as I'd known it would. “Well, he is a little distracting,” she admitted. “Somehow, we've got to find a boy for you. It would be so cool if we could go on a double date.”

Yeah, right. Because I would so enjoy seeing Piper and Luke make out. “What do you mean, ‘somehow'?” I asked, belatedly. “Is it that hard to imagine a boy liking me?”

Her eyebrows rose, and she turned to look at me. “No, dummy. It's just hard to find a way for you to meet them.”

“
You
never seem to have any trouble,” I muttered. “And watch the road, please. My dad would kill us both if you got in an accident.”

She laughed, but thankfully turned her attention back to the road. “I don't have trouble because my parents let me have a social life. If your dad would loosen up a bit, meeting boys would be a whole lot easier.”

Yes, it would. Thanks to being part of Piper's social circle, I was often invited to parties, but my dad would never let me go. I had to be able to prove to him that there would be no drugs or underage drinking at these parties, and I never could. Probably because there
would
be drugs and underage drinking. It was pretty frustrating to have a friend who was so popular and not be able to take advantage of the situation. I'd spent a lot of time in middle school longing to be part of the in crowd, and now, with Piper, I could have that—if only my dad would let me.

“Maybe,” I said. “But I don't see that happening anytime soon, do you?”

She made a face. She wasn't any more fond of my dad than he was of her. “Doesn't he realize that by this time next year you'll be in college and making these decisions for yourself?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, but that's the excuse he uses for why it's perfectly fair for him to keep me under lock and key now. If he says ‘A year isn't as long as you think' one more time, I'm going to scream.”

We stopped at a red light, and Piper turned to me. “He does realize that just because there may be other people around doing drugs and drinking, that doesn't mean
you'll
be doing it, right?”

I winced, because it sure would be nice if my dad
did
realize that. I've never been the type to give in to peer pressure, even back when I was in middle school and those peers were making me miserable. I'm no angel, but I may be a teensy bit of a control freak, and the prospect of getting drunk or high when surrounded by strangers at a party held no appeal.

Piper rolled her eyes. “Jeez, does he even
know
you? I'd probably die of shock if you turned into a lampshade-wearing party animal just because people around you were drinking.”

“He's a cop. They don't, as a general rule, have a lot of respect for teenagers.”

She waved her hand in dismissal. “But we're not talking about some generic teenager. We're talking about
you.
” The look she gave me held more than a hint of pity. “It kinda sucks if he doesn't get the difference.”

She was right. It did. But I didn't see much chance of it changing.

The expression on Piper's face changed from one of pity to one of calculation. “Maybe this is a case of what he doesn't know won't hurt him.”

Uh-oh. I knew that look. “Whatever you're thinking, the answer is no. I'm in enough trouble with my dad already.”

The light turned green, and Piper faced front, but I could still see the little smirk on her lips.
That girl's a bad influence,
my dad whispered in my head. He wasn't entirely wrong, but I couldn't swear that wasn't one of the reasons I liked her so much.

“You can't spend your whole life trying to make your dad happy,” Piper said. “You have the right to have some fun. You're coming out with me Saturday night.”

“Even
my
dad won't be working on a Saturday night. I don't see myself sneaking out with him in the house.” But the thought of going out with Piper on Saturday night kicked my pulse up a notch. I didn't know what she had planned, but I was sure it would be exciting. An adventure.

“So we'll tell him you're coming to spend the night at my place,” Piper said easily. “He can't object to a sleepover, can he?”

I snorted. If the sleepover was at Piper's, yes, he could. He didn't trust her as far as he could throw her. “I'm grounded,” I reminded her.

She wrinkled her nose. “True. Hmm. Give me a couple of days, I'll come up with a better excuse.”