9

Jordan’s locker slammed shut so hard, I could have sworn the wall vibrated.

“Um, are you okay?” I asked.

“Sorry,” he spat. “My car got broken into and I just got the estimate to fix it. Goddamn rip-off.”

“Yikes, that sucks.” It was a much more sensitive response than the first one that popped into my head, which involved calling him out on the fact that his parents would probably pay for it anyway. “Where did it happen?”

His hands slid into his pockets and he looked everywhere but at me. “At a friend’s house.”

A friend’s house—a.k.a. the Bang du Jour.

“Sorry to hear that,” I said without much sympathy. I slammed my locker. “See you later.”

“So are you going to Kevin Davidson’s party Saturday night?”

I looked over my shoulder to make sure Jordan, not a passing ventriloquist, had asked me the question. Had he actually said something conversational to me? I blinked to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

“Are you?” he prompted.

“Are you?”

“Probably.”

“Then why do you care?”

Jordan rolled his eyes and gave a soft grunt of annoyance. “You don’t have to give me attitude. It’s only a question.”

“Are you trying to make sure I’m not going so I don’t ruin your night?”

Jordan threw up his hands. “For fuck’s sake, forget it. Sorry I asked.”

He started to walk away, but I called him back. “Wait, Jordan. I’m sorry. You never talk to me anymore and I don’t know how to react. Bitch is my first line of defense.”

He smiled a little and I cursed the way my insides fluttered. “I remember,” he said with a laugh.

Wait—what the…? Was that a look of fondness? If I didn’t know better, I’d say Jordan was getting nostalgic. Dear God, please let him get nostalgic.

I leaned against my locker and tried to sound casual. “So, what about this party?”

“Nothing important. Kevin is having a bonfire again. I remember a while ago you were working on that fire collection, and it made me think of you.”

Oh my God, he was getting nostalgic. My fire collection had resulted from my fascination with the different hues visible inside flames. And, if I’m being honest, the way they’d reflected in Jordan’s eyes the last time we were at Kevin’s bonfire together. I’d spawned a whole line of bracelets and necklaces in brilliant oranges and yellows and reds with black and sapphire accents. I’d even sold a bunch of the pieces at Prints Charming and made enough money for half the down payment on my jalopy.

Why would he bring that up now, after giving me the cold shoulder for so long?

I tried to act unaffected. “So I guess you’re going?”

“I’ll be there.” He looked around and took a step closer. “It would be nice if you were too. It’s stupid that we can’t be friends.”

With that, he turned and headed down the hall, leaving me a human tornado of questions and emotions. Could it possibly be that, after all this time, Jordan had started missing me?

I wandered off to class in a daze. I never ever planned to get caught in Jordan’s web of hotness and hypocrisy again, but I needed to know what had brought on this change of heart. Even letting the tiniest part of me believe that he regretted our breakup made me feel powerful, like I’d gained the upper hand. And hadn’t I earned the right to toy with him a little?

I stopped short in the doorway to the classroom, nearly causing a pileup as I remembered a very important detail: Kevin Davidson’s property bordered Maple Acres Tree Farm. Last time I’d watched in awe as the flames silhouetted the treetops in the darkness, never imagining I’d be spending so much time at that farm a mere year later…or why. If TJ was going to be at the party this year, and if he planned to bring Kendall, we could have a problem on our hands.

Or not, I thought as I took my seat. Kendall and I could pretend not to know each other, and TJ would be none the wiser to our plan. I had been pretty adamant that the three of us should avoid being in the same place at the same time, but for one night, I didn’t see the harm. It wasn’t like my friends hung out with TJ’s friends anyway. Besides, Kendall said TJ didn’t like parties, so maybe he wouldn’t even go.

All I knew was that whatever TJ’s plans were for Saturday evening, I hoped they involved Kendall. Because Kevin Davidson’s party was suddenly the only place I wanted to be that night, and I didn’t need her love life ruining it for me.

• • •

For the rest of the week, I jumped every time my cell phone chimed with a text. I kept waiting for Kendall’s panicked message that TJ had blown her off again and she needed me to be on call. I’d already planned my lie to get out of being her Girl Friday, though I knew I’d feel guilty doing it. So far TJ hadn’t done anything wrong, but if he was cheating, there would be plenty of opportunities to catch him. One night off wouldn’t kill anyone.

Even as Charlie and I were in my room getting ready for the party, I couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief. As if he’d read my mind, Nick leaned against the frame of my bedroom door and looked in, bewildered.

“Are you putting on makeup? Did Kendall give you the key to the handcuffs?”

“We’re going to Kevin Davidson’s bonfire. Wanna come?”

“Nah, that guy’s a douche nugget.”

“You mean nobody wants a junior there?” Charlie teased.

Nick looked past me, to where Charlie stood applying lip gloss in front of my mirror. “What’s the matter, Charlotte, your school too swanky to throw a decent party?”

Charlie stuck out her tongue. “Listen, I went to school in Herring Cross until eighth grade. I have friends here. Besides”—she turned back to the mirror and ran her fingers through her bangs—“Templeton guys suck.” She must’ve missed the doofy grin that appeared on Nick’s face, because she zipped the tube of lip gloss into her clutch and turned to me. “So Kendall and TJ made up, or what? I’m shocked that you’re free tonight. Almost as shocked as I am that you want to go to this party.”

I ignored the last part of her comment and tossed her my cell phone. “She sent me a text on Wednesday, but I haven’t heard from her since. I’m not about to check in either.”

Charlie scrolled through my phone. “‘TJ came over after school today, smiley face.’” She looked up at me in disgust. “You realize this is code for ‘he threw me down on my twenty-four-carat gold bed with its diamond-encrusted headboard and had fourteen different kinds of sex with me,’ right?” She tossed the phone back and shuddered like it had cooties.

My expression soured and I said, “Thanks for the visual” at the same time Nick said, “Nice.”

Charlie turned to my brother. “Are you sure you don’t want to come? I may need help restraining your sister from dry humping Jordan Pace on sight.”

Nick looked me dead in the eye. “I’ll kill you.”

“Jesus, I’m not going to do anything with Jordan! You guys really think I’m that stupid? Don’t answer that.”

I turned back to my closet and rifled through my shirts for the hundredth time, mostly so I didn’t have to see the looks I knew they exchanged. After the way Jordan had broken my heart, wanting him to secretly pine for me made me human, not weak. At least in my opinion.

Now I just had to pray I was as strong as I pretended to be.