A quick touch. That’s all Kylie ever got from her mom these days. No long hugs like her dad gave. No mother/daughter trips. Just aloofness and quick touches. Even when Nana, her mom’s mom, died, Kylie’s mom hadn’t hugged her and Kylie had really needed a hug then. But it had been her dad who’d pulled her into his arms and let her smear mascara on his suit coat. And now Dad and all his suit coats were gone.
Drawing in a gulp of oxygen, Kylie clutched her purse. “I warned Sara I might wake up screaming bloody murder. She said she’d stake me in the heart with a wooden cross and make me go back to bed.”
“Maybe you should hide the stakes before you go to sleep.” Her mother attempted to smile.
“I will.” For one brief second, Kylie worried about leaving her mom alone on the day her dad had left. But who was she kidding? Her mom would be fine. Nothing ever bothered the Ice Queen.
Before walking out, Kylie peered out the window to make sure she wouldn’t be assaulted by a guy wearing army duds.
Deeming the yard to be free of stalkers, Kylie ran out the door, hoping that tonight’s party would help her forget just how badly her life sucked.
~
“Here. You don’t have to drink it, just hold it.” Sara Jetton pushed a beer into Kylie’s hands, and ran off.
Sharing elbow room with at least thirty kids, all packed into Mark Jameson’s living room and talking at once, Kylie clutched the ice cold bottle. Glancing around at the crowd, she recognized most of them from school. The doorbell rang again. Obviously, this was the place to be tonight. And according to every other kid at her high school, it was. Jameson, a senior whose parents never seemed to care what he did, held some of the wildest parties in town.
Ten minutes later, Sara still MIA, the party shifted into full swing. Too bad Kylie didn’t feel like swinging along with them. She frowned at the bottle in her hand.
Someone bumped into her shoulder, causing the beer to splash on her chest and run down in the V of her white blouse. “Crap.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the responsible bumper said.
Kylie looked up into John’s soft brown eyes and tried to smile. Hey, being nice to a cute guy, who’d been asking about her at school made trying to smile easy. But the fact that John had been friends with Trey kept the thrill down to a minimum.
“It’s okay,” she said.
“I’ll get you another.” As if nervous, he shot off.
“It’s really okay,” Kylie called after him, but between the music and the hum of voices, he didn’t hear her.
The doorbell rang again. A few kids shifted around and gave Kylie a view of the door. More specifically, the shift gave her a view of Trey walking inside. Beside him—or she should say plastered against him—sashayed his new slutty girlfriend.
“Great.” She swung around, wishing she could teleport herself to Tahiti or back home would be even better—especially if her dad would be there.
Through a back window, she spotted Sara on the patio and Kylie darted outside to join her.
Sara looked up. She must have read the panic on Kylie’s face, because she came running over to her. “What happened?”
“Trey and his screw toy are here.”
Sara frowned. “So, you look hot. Go flirt with some guys and make him sorry.”
Kylie rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to stay here and watch Trey and what’s her name making out.”
“Were they already making out?” Sara asked.
“Not yet, but get one beer in Trey and all he’ll think about is getting into a girl’s panties. I know because I used to be the girl in the panties.”
“Chill.” Sara pointed back at the table. “Gary brought margaritas. Have one and you’ll feel fine.”
Kylie bit her lip to keep from screaming that she wouldn’t feel fine. Her life had toilet-bound stamped all over it.
“Hey,” Sara nudged her. “We both know all you’d have to do to get Trey back is to grab him and take him upstairs. He’s still crazy about you. He found me before I left school today and asked about you.”
“Did you know he was going to be here?” Betrayal started unraveling the little sanity she had left.
“Not for sure. But chill.”
Chill? Kylie stared at her best friend and realized how different they’d become these last six months. It wasn’t just Sara’s need to party or the fact that she’d given up virginhood. Okay, so maybe it was those two things, but it seemed like more.
More as in Kylie had a sneaking suspicion that Sara longed to rush Kylie to join the partying-non-virgin ranks. Could Kylie help it if beer tasted like dog piss to her? Or if the idea of having sex didn’t appeal?
Okay, that was a lie, sex appealed to her. When she and Trey had made out, Kylie had been tempted, really tempted, but then Kylie remembered her and Sara talking about how the first time should be special.
Then she recalled how Sara had given in to Brad’s ‘needs’—Brad who was the love of Sara’s life—yet, within two weeks of giving in, the love of Sara’s life had dumped her. What was so special about that?