No. No, I couldn’t. But she seemed happy, so I shut up and figured I’d get the whole story once we were alone.
Before I could say my goodbyes to Trip, he piped up and said, “Lis-I’ll drive Layla home.” He looked at me and added, “If that’s all right with you, obviously.”
I was stunned and confused and didn’t know what to say. Lisa wasn’t waiting for me to make my own decision on the matter and cut in with, “Yeah. That’s fine. Hey, Trip, you were great tonight!” Before I knew it, she was kissing me on the cheek and chirping, “Okay, guys, see you later!” Then she grabbed Pick’s arm and led him out the door.
That just left Trip and me standing there by ourselves again, recovering from our near miss. Trip took my hand and said softly, “Hey. Come to the party with me tonight, Lay.”
I looked down at his fingers threaded through mine, not quite believing what I was seeing. “I don’t know, Trip... I don’t want to crash...”
“You’re not crashing, I’m inviting you. C’mon, it’ll be fun.”
I didn’t know what brought about the change in him, but the last time I’d seen that look on his face, he was standing under my bedroom window after the homecoming dance.
That was the last good night between us, the unofficial end of our affiliation. I’d spent months after that trying to maintain my distance from him, convince myself that I was better off without him. It seemed impossible, but I had done it. I had purged Trip Wilmington out of my system and gone on with my life. After all that, would I really even consider putting myself in a position to go down that same road all over again?
You’d fucking better believe it.
Chapter 23
THE INNER CIRCLE
The party was at Heather Ferrante’s house. I think I can count on one hand the number of times she and I had ever been in the same room together, much less held a conversation. I felt like a complete intruder walking through the front door of her home.
Obviously, everyone else at the party felt so, too.
I’d been hanging with the “in-crowd” for so long, I’d forgotten what it felt like to be an outsider. Two steps inside the living room, I was reminded.
I couldn’t help but notice the unwelcoming looks I was receiving from the Preppy Girls, who didn’t even have the social grace to hide their disbelief at my presence. One of them (they all looked alike to me and I couldn’t remember anyone’s specific name) went so far as to singsong, “Hiii, Trip!” in a misguided, possessive sort of way, while completely bypassing even a polite hello to me. She was obviously the alpha female in her clan-her ballsy attitude instantly reminded me of Lisa-and I figured the rules of hierarchy held true for every clique; nerdy, cool, preppy or otherwise.
“Hey, Shelly. Hey, girls,” he remarked in their direction. “You know Layla, right?”
Shelly just gave me the once over and turned back toward her group of lemmings.
I couldn’t believe it. Was that loser nobody seriously snubbing me? Where did she get off? I didn’t even know her name until a minute ago, and she was acting like I was the social disease?
It was times like these when I wished I were more like Lisa. She would have instantaneously come up with the perfect zinger to put that little Ally Sheedy right in her place. But because I’m me, I knew I wouldn’t come up with something until thirty seconds after I’d walked away, then have to wait for the chance to use it in retaliation at a more opportune moment. Until then, I could just ignore her.
Kind of like I’d done for the past seventeen-and-a-half years, I guess.
I’d been about to write her off as just another jealous nobody with a self-imposed chip on her shoulder...
...when I realized that maybe her only problem was that she was just tired of being ignored for so long.
The rest of her little entourage stifled their giggles after my public snubbing, and I decided coming up with the perfect comeback was unnecessary. I was taken aback by why she would have even cared enough to bother trying to get one over on me-I mean, seriously, who the hell was I?- but it obviously meant a lot to her to have gotten the best of Layla Warren, so I let her have her triumphant moment. If she was going to live such a small life, it wasn’t my problem to deal with.