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“Thanks.” His grin grew. “So you’re going to hang with us tonight, huh?”

I forced myself not to glance toward Ryder as I nodded. He didn’t want me around, and since everyone was going to his house, he had every right to refuse my presence. But would he? I kind of didn’t think so.

“My stepdad talked my mom into letting me stay out until midnight.”

“All right,” Todd whooped. “Do you want to ride with me or do you have your own set of wheels?”

My eyes flew open wide. Ride with him? No, no, no, everything inside me rebelled. I did not want to ride anywhere with anyone. But…

“How far away is it?” I hedged.

He shrugged. “Only a couple of blocks from here.”

I bit my lip, thinking I should just say I’d walk. But I didn’t know where I was going, I didn’t want to offend Todd, and it was really freaking cold outside.

“Okay,” I relented, bundling myself deeper into my red and black coat, silently telling him I had agreed only because of the weather. But honestly, this was going to be majorly weird, riding in a foreign car with some foreign boy I’d just met hours ago. My mother would totally not approve. Heck, I didn’t approve. But I felt sucked into something I couldn’t escape. The whole day felt like one big suction, dragging me deeper and deeper into actions that were growing irritatingly out of my control.

So I rode with Todd in his beat up Jeep Cherokee to Ryder Yates’s house. Thankfully, the drive ended up being not as bad as I thought it would. Three others rode with us. Two cheerleaders and a boyfriend of one of the cheerleaders, though I couldn’t name any of them. Todd had me sit up front with him in the passenger seat while the other three packed into the back, complaining about their cramped ride the entire way.

“God, Todd,” one of the girls grumbled, tugging up an empty Gatorade bottle on which she’d been sitting. “Don’t you ever clean your car?”

He grinned into the rearview mirror. “Clean it for me and I’ll give you five bucks.”

She snorted. “I’ll pass. It’d take twenty just to run this heap of mud through a car wash.”

The boy passenger found a sheet of paper he’d wrinkled under his shoe. After squinting at it in the sparse lighting, he pulled back and lifted his eyebrows. “Dude, weren’t we supposed to hand this in, like, last week?”

“Hey, that’s where that paper went. I told the teacher I’d finished it.” Todd snatched the sheet and tucked it into the cubby between his seat and mine.

I bit my lip, worried about his grade for him. “Can you still turn it in?”

He shrugged, a bit too nonchalant for my taste. “I’m sure I can sweet-talk my way into getting the teacher to accept it.”

His confidence surprised me. He must be used to cajoling teachers. I was usually too intimidated and guilty to even try when I wanted more time. That’s probably why I never turned in anything late.

Todd slowed the Jeep and pulled into a driveway. As the headlights swept over Ryder’s home, I sat forward, scoping the place out. It was a large, split-level home. Todd parked behind a new model, extended cab truck and a rusted old car. I had to guess the truck was probably Ryder’s and the car belonged to one of their other friends.

Behind me, the still nameless cheerleaders and boyfriend piled out into the cold, dark night. Todd killed the engine and grinned over at me. He always seemed to be smiling at me. It made me wonder if he was truly that happy of an individual or if he was forcing his enthusiasm for some strange, nameless reason.

“Ready?” he asked.

Not really, but I followed him and the other three along the drive and right past the front door. I glanced back toward the entrance, and shrugged, figuring we’d probably go around to the back. But instead, the four in front of me paused on the shadowy east side at a brightly lit window that led into the bottom level of the house.

“Knock, knock,” Todd called as he ducked his head into the open space and started to climb inside. I watched, mystified, as the other three followed him, entering the house through a window.

Were we sneaking in? Did his parents not know he had so many friends over? I stood outside in the cold by myself for about two seconds before Todd popped his head out.

“Need some help in?” He held out his hand.

“Um, no thanks. I got it.” Shrugging, I crouched and shimmed my way into Ryder Yates’s bedroom.

The nerd herd was so not going to believe this.

I refused to stick my backside in first and climb inside with my spine to the window. So I sat on the ground outside, tucked my feet in first, then ducked my head and dropped about three feet to the floor. Once my shoes hit carpet, someone called, “Shut the window. You’re letting all the cold in.”

Todd appeared beside me and did the honors. I leaned toward him and quietly asked, “Why did we just come in through a window?” hoping my question didn’t have some kind of foolishly obvious answer that I should’ve already figured out.