Chapter 365 - A Party

Chapter 365: Chapter 365 - A Party

Music carried all the way to the street, cars filled both sides of the road, and people were spilling onto the porch with cups in their hands while more moved behind the windows. Somebody had opened the garage and turned it into another place to drink, which meant Mason had apparently invited half the senior class.

And Roxie could feel her social battery already draining.

Roxie looked at Angela beside her. She had been confident when they left school, but now she stood on the sidewalk staring at the house with her purse tucked tightly beneath one arm.

Karen came up on her other side in a fitted black top and jeans. "If either of you decides to run, I’m dragging you inside."

Angela gave her a look. "I’m thinking about it."

"We can’t. They have alcohol."

Roxie rolled her eyes before touching Angela’s arm. "We can still leave if you want to."

Angela stared at the front door for another moment before drawing in a breath and adjusting her purse. "I said I wanted normal. Let’s try."

Karen smiled and hooked an arm through hers. "Then congratulations. This is the stupidest version of normal available."

That finally made Angela laugh, and the three of them headed inside.

Mason noticed them almost immediately. "There they are!"

Roxie winced as he pushed through several people with a cup in one hand, but he went straight for Karen and threw his free arm around her shoulders.

"You came."

Karen looked down at his arm before slowly looking up at him. "Take this off before I break it."

Mason smiled. "You look hot."

Karen lifted her chin. "I know."

Roxie hid her smile when she noticed Karen never actually pushed his arm away. For someone threatening to break it, she seemed almost frozen beneath it, and Mason apparently noticed too because his smile widened.

"She always this nice?"

"Only when she likes someone."

Karen elbowed Roxie hard enough to make her stumble. "Shut up."

Angela laughed beside her, and Roxie glanced toward her automatically.

Angela caught her. "Stop checking me."

"I wasn’t."

"You were."

Roxie smiled innocently. "Maybe I was looking because you’re pretty."

Angela rolled her eyes. "You suck at acting normal."

Mason finally turned toward Angela, and for half a second his expression softened before he seemed to remember the same rule everyone else had apparently been given.

"Angela."

She looked at him suspiciously. "What?"

"You look terrible."

Angela stared at him while Roxie covered her mouth.

Mason grinned. "There. Normal."

Angela laughed and shoved his shoulder. "Asshole."

"That’s better."

He caught Karen by the wrist and started pulling her toward the kitchen. Karen immediately protested that she was perfectly capable of walking by herself, but Mason ignored her while asking what she wanted to drink.

Roxie and Angela exchanged a look before following them through the crowd. They made it barely halfway across the living room before an arm circled Roxie’s waist from behind and pulled her back against a familiar body.

"Finally."

Roxie smiled before she even turned around. "We’ve been here thirty seconds."

Zac pressed a kiss against her cheek. "Long thirty seconds."

His hand settled firmly against her waist, and Roxie felt that familiar little thrill run through her because she already knew where his thoughts were going.

She tilted her head toward him. "Behave."

"I am."

"You’ve had your hands on me for five seconds."

"That’s me behaving."

Roxie turned inside his arms and looked up at him. Zac had dressed casually in jeans and a dark shirt that fit his shoulders well enough to become irritating once she noticed it. She let her gaze travel slowly down him before returning to his face.

His eyebrows lifted.

Roxie smiled sweetly. "What?"

"You’re staring."

"I’m looking at you. Big difference."

"With that intensity, it isn’t."

His hand tightened slightly at her waist, and Roxie grinned because she could already see his attention changing.

Zac leaned closer. "Babe."

"What?"

"You know what you’re doing."

Roxie bit her lip because she was already starting to laugh. "I have no idea what you mean."

She slid one hand across his chest as she said it, moving her fingers slowly enough to make his eyes narrow. The reaction came so quickly that she giggled and started turning away, but Zac caught her around the waist and pulled her back.

"You think you’re funny?"

"Very."

"You’ve been here thirty seconds and you’re already starting."

"You grabbed me first."

"You told me to behave."

Roxie leaned closer until her mouth was near his ear. "Maybe I like when you don’t."

She pulled away before he could answer.

The look on Zac’s face nearly made her laugh louder.

"Oh, wow."

"Roxie."

She backed away from him, still grinning. "Come on. Everybody’s waiting."

Zac stared at her for another second before following. "You’re going to regret that."

Roxie looked over her shoulder. "Promise?"

His expression changed again, and she burst out laughing.

Maybe she had a problem too.

Mason had gathered everyone near the kitchen by the time they reached the back of the house. Dylan and Kyle were already there with several football players, Ava, two cheer girls and a few other seniors Roxie recognized. Angela ended up between Roxie and Karen, and for the first several minutes everything stayed easy while people talked about graduation, Nationals, school and whatever stupid thing had happened during practice.

Nobody had the nerve to bring up Angela or ask her uncomfortable questions, and Roxie watched the tension slowly leave her shoulders.

Mason, meanwhile, had apparently decided tonight was the night he would destroy whatever pride he had left trying to impress Karen. He offered her three different drinks, moved a chair for her and kept finding excuses to stand beside her.

Angela leaned toward Roxie. "He’s trying really hard."

Roxie watched Mason hand Karen a cup while Karen inspected it like she expected poison. "He has no pride left."

Angela nodded seriously. "Like a dog wagging his tail."

"Angela!" Roxie stared at her in shock before dissolving into giggles.

"What? I’m saying Karen usually hates that. Wasn’t her last boyfriend that older guy who looked like he just came out of prison?"

Roxie looked back at Mason and Karen. On the surface Karen seemed irritated by every attempt he made, but the fact that she had stayed exactly where she was while he hovered around her said something else.

"She likes it."

Angela smiled. "A mystery."

Roxie laughed while Karen gave them a sharp glance from across the counter as if she knew perfectly well they were talking about her.

Ava eventually wandered over and joined their conversation. After a few minutes of harmless small talk, she asked Angela whether she had heard anything else about Bianca, and the change around them was immediate.

Ava seemed to regret asking as soon as the words left her mouth. "Sorry. Forget it."

Angela shook her head. "It’s okay. She’s gone."

Karen looked at her. "Gone where?"

"Europe. Her mother took her back, and apparently the main Reeves family cut them off from a lot of things after everything with the Grand came out."

Ava stared at her. "Seriously?"

Angela nodded while turning her cup between her palms. "They said she embarrassed the family and dragged one of their businesses into it."

Karen leaned against the counter. "Maybe it’s for the best. She’s out of the country, she can’t keep showing up everywhere you are, and whatever punishment they gave her is their problem now."

Angela stared into her cup for a moment. "I thought I’d feel better. When Caleb told me she was leaving, I thought I’d feel like I won something."

She gave a small laugh.

"I didn’t feel anything."

Karen reached across and squeezed her wrist. "Maybe you don’t have to."

Angela looked at her for a moment before nodding.

Then Karen grabbed the bottle sitting beside Mason. "Okay. That’s enough depressing shit for one night."

Mason smiled immediately. "I knew I liked you."

Karen poured more into her cup. "We came here to drink."

Roxie raised an eyebrow. "Your head was killing you at lunch."

Karen took a sip and gave her a satisfied look. "It stopped."

"Convenient."

"Medicine."

Angela laughed, and Roxie shook her head before letting it go.

A few minutes later Mason announced a drinking game, which immediately turned into an argument because nobody agreed on the rules and Mason clearly started inventing new ones whenever they benefited him.

"If you pull a queen, you pick somebody to drink," Mason explained.

Kyle frowned. "You said that about the jack."

"That’s different."

"How?"

"Because this is a queen."

Dylan stared at him. "You have no idea what you’re doing."

Mason pointed toward him. "Drink for disrespecting the host."

"That wasn’t a rule."

"It is now."

Everybody started talking over one another, and Angela laughed hard enough to cover her mouth. Roxie watched her for a few seconds and finally allowed herself to relax because Angela was laughing without constantly checking the room or disappearing into whatever was happening inside her head. She was simply sitting on Mason’s floor arguing over a stupid drinking game with their friends.

Karen, however, seemed determined to win something that had no actual winner. She drank whenever the game demanded it and volunteered to take Angela’s turn when Angela pushed her cup away.

"I’ll take it."

Angela looked at her. "You already had yours."

Karen shrugged. "And?"

Roxie laughed. "You’re going fast."

"It’s a party."

Mason leaned closer. "That’s why she’s my favorite."

Karen looked down her nose at him. "You have terrible taste."

"I have excellent taste."

Karen gave him an unimpressed look. "Wouldn’t work on me."

But she still made absolutely no effort to move away from him.

The game continued, and sometime later Zac found his way back to Roxie. She was listening to Kyle accuse Mason of cheating when she felt Zac’s hand settle against her thigh.

She looked sideways.

He leaned closer. "Come with me."

Roxie smiled immediately because she knew exactly what he meant. "Where?"

He simply stared at her.

She bit the inside of her cheek, already fighting another giggle. "Use your words."

Zac’s fingers moved slightly higher against her thigh.

Roxie inhaled sharply and slapped his hand, although she was grinning by the time she whispered his name.

"Zac."

"What?"

"You’re terrible."

"You’ve been messing with me since you got here."

"I have been sitting here behaving."

Zac gave her a look, and Roxie laughed because both of them knew that was a lie.

She had been finding little ways to bother him all night whenever he came close enough. She had dragged her fingers over the back of his neck when she passed behind him, rested a hand on his thigh while carrying on a completely unrelated conversation and moved it away the moment his attention shifted toward her. Once she realized how easily she could change his expression, she had started doing it simply because his reactions entertained her.

Roxie leaned closer now and rested one hand against his chest. "Maybe you’re just easily distracted."

Zac caught her wrist, and his eyes dropped to her mouth.

Heat immediately rushed into Roxie’s cheeks.

His mouth curved. "You’re blushing."

"Shut up."

"You started it."

Roxie laughed and tried to pull her hand away, but Zac kept it, so instead she leaned closer and slowly traced one finger over his shirt while pretending she was still paying attention to the game.

His jaw tightened.

Roxie started giggling immediately.

"Babe."

She looked at him innocently. "What?"

"Come upstairs."

Her face became even hotter.

Roxie looked toward Angela because she suddenly needed somewhere else to put her attention before Zac realized how much those two words affected her. Angela was laughing while Mason accused Kyle of cheating, and Karen was arguing about whose turn it was.

Zac followed her gaze. "She’s okay. She has Karen, Ava, Mason, Dylan, Kyle and half the cheer team here."

"That list makes me less confident."

Zac smiled. "Five minutes."

Roxie snorted. "You are physically incapable of five minutes."

His expression changed.

Roxie immediately realized how that sounded, and laughter burst out of her so quickly she had to cover her face.

Zac stared at her. "Really?"

"I didn’t mean it like that."

"Yes, you did."

"I swear."

"You’re laughing."

Roxie leaned against him because she was still giggling. "Okay. Maybe a little."

Zac caught her around the waist and leaned closer to her ear. "Keep making jokes and maybe we should test that."

Roxie’s face heated again, and she hit his chest while trying to suppress another laugh. The way he was looking at her now only made the blush worse, and suddenly she was aware that anyone paying attention could probably tell exactly what was happening between them.

She leaned closer and whispered, "Maybe I will."

Then she slid her hand over his thigh just enough to feel his body tense beneath it.

Zac drew in a harder breath.

The reaction sent another rush of heat through her, and Roxie had to fight the stupid urge to glance down. Knowing she had caused that reaction was enough to make her fingertips tingle where they rested against him.

Zac caught her hand.

"Come on. Just for a bit."

Roxie looked around the room. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to them, although there was always the possibility their friends were simply making a very deliberate effort to look elsewhere.

Angela was laughing.

Karen had another drink in her hand while Mason sat close enough that their shoulders touched.

Everything looked fine.

Roxie turned back to Zac and found him still watching her.

"Fine."

He stood immediately.

Roxie laughed. "Wow. You didn’t even pretend to think about it."

"I’ve been thinking about it."

"That actually makes it worse."

Zac caught her hand and started pulling her through the crowd while Roxie followed, still laughing under her breath.

She looked back once more before they left the room. Angela was talking animatedly to Ava now, while Karen leaned toward Mason to hear something over the music.

Roxie let herself relax.

Then she let Zac pull her upstairs.

The moment they reached the quieter hallway, Roxie turned before Zac could do anything and pushed him lightly against the wall.

The surprise on his face made her laugh.

"Oh."

Zac raised his eyebrows.

Roxie stepped closer and rested both hands against his chest. "What?"

"You’re feeling brave tonight."

"Maybe."

She kissed him first.

Zac responded immediately, one hand sliding around her waist while the other settled against her back, but before he could take control of the kiss, Roxie pulled away.

His eyes opened.

Roxie smiled.

That expression alone made the little rush of confidence inside her grow.

"What?" she asked.

Zac stared at her mouth before looking back into her eyes. "You’re enjoying this."

Roxie’s cheeks were still burning, but she was smiling too hard to pretend otherwise. "Maybe I like seeing what happens when I start it."

"You already know what happens."

"That’s why it’s fun."

She slid her hands slowly up his chest again, watching his face the entire time. Zac caught her waist and pulled her closer, and Roxie laughed against his mouth when he tried to kiss her again.