My best friend was abombshell. She wore the skirt with a black t-shirt she tied up in the front, exposing a strip of her abdomen. Her platform boots gave her short frame a few more inches, and bright blue hair framed her face.
"Is he going to stare at Ash all night?" Gabby asked Cade. Our gaze followed hers over to West, who was sitting in a patio chair next to the table with the fake flames in the middle. He had a death grip on the bottle of whiskey.
Cade laughed and put his arm around my shoulders. "My boy has itbadfor you, princess. To answer your question, my angel,yes. Yes, he will. But only because he's too much of a pussy to come over here."
"What happened last night? You were about to tell me when we ran into your ex," said Gabby.
"Everett's not my ex. We fucked one time. Well, technically twice. But it was on the same night."
"Whatever. Quit deflecting!" Gabby said playfully.
"You're not talking about what happened in the bathroom are you?" Cade's eyes darted back and forth between me and Gabby. I widened my eyes in direct warning.Talk and you're a dead man.
"In the bathroom? Really, Ash? Twenty bedrooms in this palace and you get screwed in the bathroom," Gabby said loudly. Tact wasn't her strong suit.
"Shhh! Geez, why don't you go take the DJ's microphone and announce it to the whole party," I said as I nudged her toward the DJ booth.
"Not a bad idea," mused Cade.
"We didn't have sex, just…"
"Just say it, we're all adults here."
"We're actually not," Gabby noted.
"He went down on me. Okay? Happy now? But it was because of everything going on with Rem, and my little anxiety problem. That's all."
They both smiled at me, giving knowing looks like I was full of shit.
"I'm gonna go get more drinks. I think you could use a strong one, princess. You're blushing."
"No roofies! I have test strips to check!" Gabby yelled across the grass. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”
“I was going to. I just didn’t have time with the whole Remington getting beat up thing and then with the stalker taking photos of me sleeping...”
“Getting head from West is abig deal, Ash. You like him, otherwise you wouldn’t let him…you know. So, what are you going to do now? Are you going to let him do it again? Are you going to reciprocate?” Gabby winked at me and shoved me with her hip.
“I don't know. This is why I wasn't going to tell anyone…” I looked at West again. There were other people around him, but he sat silently staring at the sky, looking like he wished he was anywhere but here.
“I think he likes you," Gabby said, taking my hand in hers. She smiled brightly waiting for me to respond.
"Maybe. But I can't get in that space with my heart again. It's one thing to mess around with him, but I'm not going to sit around and daydream about him. About us. Which is all this is, by the way–a fantasy."
"I think you should just go for it!"
Who is this girl and what did she do with my Gabby? I eyed her suspiciously. I had a feeling her change of heart about West had more to do with the guy on his way back with our drinks.
Once Cade came back with three red cups filled with straight vodka and the tiniest splash of lime–all of which were drug-free, he promised–we downed them. They went down better than the tequila. Or maybe they went down betterbecauseof the tequila.
The DJ was finally set up and running his booth. The backyard was packed with people, a blend of some I recognized from school and some older people who went to GPU. So much for that small kick-back Axel planned.
"Are we dancing or what?" Asked Gabby, a massive smile on her face. It made my heart happy to see her having fun.
"I thought you'd never ask.” Cade tossed our cups and took each of our hands and pulled us into the thrall of the dance floor.
We started grinding and dancing wildly togood 4 uby Olivia Rodrigo. Gabby and I weren't always up on popular hits, but hey, we enjoyed a good Tik Tok as much as any other teenager.
As the music flowed and we continued to dance–not gracefully, by the way, but it was fun and that's what mattered–I couldn't help but smile at my friends. Cade danced like a maniac, not giving a shit that people were laughing. Even Gabby was laughing at him, and he beamed from her positive attention.