The Way to Game the Walk of Shame (20 page)

Aaron’s eyes widened when he saw me waiting by his locker, and his steps faltered. Despite being a huge football player, he always looked like a deer stuck in headlights when I talked to him. I was always nice to him, but I don’t think he forgot that one time I was pissed at Evan after our one-night stand. (There was no other way to refer to that night.) Not exactly my best moment.

“Hi, Aaron. How was class?”

He sneaked glances at me as he twirled the combination on his locker. “It was all right, I guess. What’s up?”

“I was just wondering … do you know where Evan is? He’s not picking up his phone.” I fiddled with the coin necklace that Evan had given me while I waited for his answer.

Aaron shook his head. “No. I thought if anyone knew where he was, it’d be you.”

“I don’t. Do you know if he has any plans later tonight, then?”

With a small frown, he leaned against the locker next to his and chewed on his thumbnail. “There’s a party at Wrightsville Beach tonight. I’m pretty sure Evan’s going to be there. In fact, now that I think about it, he’s probably there now. He cuts school sometimes to go there during the day. That’s his favorite place to surf.”

“It is?”

“Yeah.” He gave me a funny look, and I almost smacked my forehead for slipping. That was probably something that a good girlfriend should know. “Do you know where it is?”

“I think so. I passed it before when I went to Carolina Beach with Brian.” Another funny look.
Darn it.
A good girlfriend probably didn’t talk about their dates with other guys so casually. Even though it wasn’t really a
date
. “Carly was with us, too.”

Aaron shoved a couple of books into his locker and slammed it closed. He turned to face me again, tugging on his left earlobe with his hand. “I can drive you to the party if you want a ride,” he offered to the locker over my head.

I struggled not to laugh. Even though he still looked a little skittish, I wanted to give him a huge hug. He could barely talk to me for a few minutes, yet he was offering to drive me to a party. The ride would be too torturous for us both. “No, that’s all right. Thanks, though.”

“No problem.” He turned to leave, but tilted his head around to nod at me. “See you at the party.”

“Bye.” A smile crossed my face when he disappeared from sight. Aaron really was a sweetheart. He was too awesome not to have a girlfriend. I would hook him up with Carly, but I’m pretty sure she’d eat him alive.

Speaking of the man-eater. I dug my phone out of my pocket and speed-dialed Carly’s number. “Hey, Carly, do you mind if I borrow your car tonight?”

*   *   *

I realized too late that I could have just waited for him at his house. It wasn’t like he was never going to come home. And it was probably a bad idea to come to the beach party. Especially with all the laughing drunk people roaming around the large bonfire. I wished Carly were here with me, but she was being dragged to some career seminar with her mom.

Five minutes later, I was sure it was a bad idea. Stupid, stupid idea. I wove my way through the crowd, trying to avoid getting stepped on or having a drink tossed in my face, when someone pulled me back from behind.

“Taylor! You’re here!”

“Er, hi.” I saw a glimpse of Aaron’s face before he swept me into a tight bear hug, like we hadn’t seen each other for years instead of just a few hours. My feet dangled over the sand for a few moments as I struggled to breathe. I patted his shoulder to get his attention. “Where’s Evan?”

“Evan? He’s drinking somewhere over there.” His hand waved around the entire party.

Great. That was really helpful. “Somewhere over there” covered about a hundred or so teenagers drinking and shimmying down each other’s bodies to the music. Even though I was their age—younger, since I’d skipped a grade—I felt as out of place as a hippo at a Sunday tea party.

I tried to slip away, but Aaron was too fast and tugged me right back. He pulled me into a tight embrace as though we were dancing. My head was smooshed against his neck, and the alcoholic fumes hit me in the face when I tried to pull away.
Urgh.
He was stinking, fall-on-your-back, stick-your-head-in-the-toilet drunk. As further proof, his red-rimmed eyes squinted down at me. “Let’s go find him, Tay!”

He maneuvered us around and half tangoed, half skipped into the center of the party.

We had barely taken ten steps when three other large guys decided to join us in the “fun.” They whooped and hollered around me, and we all danced—well, they danced, I stumbled—toward the fire.

I never imagined I would ever be in a center of a guy pile and be this miserable. This was as close to an orgy as I’d ever get. And I was beginning to think it was severely overrated.

“Let her go!”

Even though that was the same thing I had been telling them to do for several minutes, they listened to the commanding female voice and fell away from me. I straightened up with a sigh and a grateful smile for my savior, which instantly faded when I realized whom it was.

“Well, look who we have here. Little Ms. Perfect’s finally off her throne for the weekend.”

Lauren. Lauren and her curvy body clad in tight jeans and a white tank top, on display in all its glory. The bright-red bikini top shone through the thin fabric. How the heck was she
not
freezing? My shirt had sleeves and goose bumps were still popping up all over my arms. Maybe her snarkiness kept her warm. Like an internal mean girl heater.

Her auburn, curly hair was loosely braided to hang midway down her back. She managed to look innocent, sensual, ethereal, wild, and reserved all at the same time. I didn’t know how she managed to look like she could take over the world with one hand yet wouldn’t mind the occasional shoulder to lean on once in a while. But I could see why Evan used to date her. Any guy would jump to do her bidding. Guys were such idiots.

God, I hated her.

My head whipped back and forth as I searched for someone to save me. Anyone. Given the choice, I’d rather go back to the orgy. “Um, yeah. Great party.”

“You don’t belong here,” she said, hands on either side of her hips.

“Tell me about it.” I rolled my eyes before realizing I’d said it out loud. Lauren stared at me as though I were a water slug slithering up the shore to join the party. No, scratch that. The slug would have been more welcome than I was. “Uh, do you know where Evan is?”

The hardened expression on her face showed that she
did
know where he was, but that didn’t mean she was going to tell me. Not by the tight line her red lips formed.

Was this hostility because she didn’t think I belonged here or because she didn’t think I belonged with Evan? If you asked me,
she
never deserved him. She was clearly an A-rated bitch, while Evan was … well, Evan.

Either way, it didn’t look like I was going get past the bodyguard anytime soon. “You know what? Never mind, I’m gonna go.”

I had barely taken a few steps when her voice reached me. “Yeah, you better go back to your precious books. Best to leave Evan with people who really understand him.”

“What makes you think I don’t understand him?”

Lauren looked me up and down and sneered. Yes,
sneered
. Her left hand spread wide on her hip. “Do you really need to ask?”

That was it. I’d had enough of her smug ass. I crossed my arms and stood my ground. “On second thought, I think I’ll stay. I
am
Evan’s girlfriend. Why shouldn’t I hang out with his friends?”

Ouch.
I knew I had hit a sore spot when her mouth fell open. She recovered pretty quickly and looked around at the people watching us as if we were a reality show. Like that would ever happen. I’d need another two cup sizes before a show about my life would ever have a
chance
of getting picked up.

A devilish look entered her piercing blue eyes, and my stomach sank in response.
Oh no. I think I poked the bear. Stirred the hornets’ nest. Unleashed hell.
“Fine, stay here. Come have fun with the rest of us.” Lauren reached into her pocket and pulled out a small white tube. She held it out to me. “Go on. Take it.”

It was a joint.

She had called my bluff. And now I didn’t know what to do.
Crap. Crap. CRAP.

I rolled it around in my fingertips. It was so small and harmless looking. But I’d attended enough D.A.R.E. meetings to know how dangerous it could be. I still wore the antidrug T-shirts to bed. I still helped out at the yearly fundraisers. Heck, I even won the award for best essay in my district division just a few years ago. I knew
all
about the consequences.

But now all that seemed to fade into the background with everyone staring at me. All the arguments, all the facts.
Poof!
Gone.

“Taylor?”

We both whirled around, and there was Evan. His mussed hair stuck up in all directions. He was in a threadbare black T-shirt and khaki shorts that were covered with dark, wet splotches.

I’d never been so happy to see anyone in my life.

His gaze jumped back and forth and finally landed on the joint in my hand. With a fierce scowl, Evan snatched it from me. “You know what? I don’t even want to know. Come on. Let’s go,” he muttered, sticking it in his back pocket.

We had only taken a few steps when Lauren grabbed his arm and pulled him back, inadvertently knocking me off balance, since his other arm was wrapped around my shoulders. “You’re just going to leave? Just like that?”

The simple question had a thousand other questions attached it.

He scanned the party for a long moment before he finally released me. Time froze and I stepped back, feeling dejected. He was going to go with her. Probably deciding this ruse had played through long enough. A wave of disappointment washed over me. Not because I liked him or anything. No, because I thought we had become friends.

NOT because I liked him.

The smugness on Lauren’s face grew as she came to the same conclusion I did.

To everyone’s surprise, Evan just pried her hand off ever so lightly—finger by finger—until she was no longer touching him, and he dropped her hand. He backed up a few steps until he was at my side again. With both hands raised as though he were surrendering, Evan nodded. “Yeah, I am. Just. Like. That.”

17

{Taylor}

I don’t know if Evan understood what he had just done. I barely understood. Even if he was naive—and I knew he wasn’t—there was no mistaking the pissed-off look in Lauren’s eyes before we left. It was weird to see her eyes so icy when her hair and ruby lips looked like they were on fire. You could practically feel the waves of hatred radiating off her body.

Even now I could feel her eyes piercing through my back. I didn’t know if Evan felt it, too, but he tightened his grip. And he never looked back. Not even when Aaron let out a loud “Whoop!”

We didn’t head for the parking lot. Instead, we strolled along the water’s edge, hand in hand, but not looking at each other. Not saying anything. I was glad. I didn’t know what I was supposed to say. My mind was still reeling.

He chose me. Me over Lauren in all her red-bikini glory. In front of everyone. His hand was warm and steady in my hand. It was both comforting and made me tingle from head to toe. And it was getting kind of hard to catch my breath.

Finally, when the party was way behind us, he let go and sank down into the sand barely a few feet from the shore. He watched the waves crash against each other in the distance. White foam glowed against the black sea. A couple of gray-and-white seagulls pecked at the sand around us, cooing at each other every other minute or so.

“So, that was kind of crazy,” Evan commented after a while.

“Yeah, a bit.” Sitting down next to him, I tried to sound confident. “I could have handled it, though.”

“I’m sure you would have.” He waved his hand in front of my face. His index finger and thumb were half an inch apart. “I helped a little bit, though.”

“Maybe.” I batted his hand away. “Or maybe I let you play the knight in shining armor to boost your ego. Big as it already is.”

“I think we both know that my ego is already at its max,” he said with a lopsided grin that made my stomach flop.

“You said it, not me.”

With a laugh, Evan shifted to the side and dug the joint out of his pocket. “Better get rid of this now before I forget. Mom and Brandon would freak if I accidentally brought it home.” He wound his arm back and pitched it into the ocean. Dusting off his hands, he turned to look at me. “So why are you here?”

I wrapped my arms around my knees and rocked back and forth. “What do you mean? This is my scene every Friday night. Before Lauren showed up, I was the life of the party out there.”

A wide grin came across his face. “Something makes me really doubt that, since you consider homework fun.” His hair flopped around as he shook his head. It wasn’t spiked up at all tonight, and parts of his hair were still damp. He must have been surfing before the party. “Are you sure there’s no other reason?”

Was I such a bad liar? It was like he saw right through me. “I was worried about you. You seem different. Like you’re mad at me or something. Especially after the other night with Brian—” I broke off when his jaw visibly tightened. Uh, maybe this wasn’t the best time to bring up Brian. “Do you regret this?”

He stared out at the water. “Depends what you mean by
this
.”

What the hell. There was no turning back now. I let out a deep breath. “The contract. Us pretending to be together. Do you regret it?”

Even though I had asked the question, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know his answer. Because I was afraid of what it would be. Just because he chose me over Lauren once didn’t mean anything. Maybe he was being nice.

He finally looked down at me, and his face softened a bit. His gray eyes searched my face like he wanted to find the right answer there. His hand brushed my hair out of my eyes, and I fought the urge to lean against his hand. “No, I don’t.”