Page 36 of I Would Stay Forever (Parkhurst Prep #2)

The party was in full swing by the time we got there, to the point of red Solo cups being dumped all over the ground and even a little bit of vomit that I had to sidestep as I walked up to the house.

I passed my brother briefly as I walked through the living room, but he was busy talking to some guys with really serious looks on their faces, one of whom was handing out small pieces of paper with a concentrated look on his face.

Next, we passed through the kitchen, where I noticed Nora chatting with a pink-haired girl I’d seen around school.

I couldn’t remember her name, just that it was something unusual, and she was on the swim team with Ainsley.

I smiled at Nora as I walked by but she was preoccupied and didn’t notice.

I glanced back at Sebastian one more time, wondering why he’d invited Nora along then ditched her as soon as they arrived but decided it wasn’t my problem.

Drinks were available on the back deck, and I was quick to grab a Sprite for myself instead of giving Paige and Zoey the chance to make me something disgusting.

Paige asked if I wouldn’t mind driving us home before filling her cup with cheap beer with Coca-Cola.

My lip curled as I watched Zoey follow suit for her and Molly, but I was happy as long as I wouldn’t be drinking it along with them.

“Come with me!” Paige said to Molly, and then before the redhead could protest, she pulled her down the porch steps and across the back lawn. Before long, they were sidling up to some boys, who must have been who Paige was talking about in the car.

“Paige is super into that guy and she wants to set Molly up with his brother so they can double,” Zoey told me conspiratorially. Her eyes locked on something on the other side of the yard and she got a look on her face that made me a little nervous. “And speaking of boys…”

Already knowing I was going to regret it, I turned to look at what she was talking about.

Lo and behold, there was Dean, sitting alone on the rock of a water fixture.

It should have looked pathetic and lonely but as he casually leaned back and took a sip of his drink, I thought he actually gave off the vibe of not caring.

Like this party was so far beneath him that he couldn’t even be bothered to join in.

“Go talk to him,” Zoey hissed.

“I can’t,” I said, digging my heels in as she tried to shove me forward. “I’m staying with you.”

“I don’t want you to talk to me.”

I put a hand to my chest. “I’ll do my best not to be offended by that.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed me harder. This time, I stumbled and she came with me. A couple people on the grass looked at us weirdly but I ignored them. Even if I managed to royally embarrass myself at this party, I was sure nobody but me was sober enough to remember it later.

“Go. Talk. To. Him,” she said, enunciating each word like it was its own sentence. “He already took you out for lunch earlier this week. Shouldn’t you be having fun now? You guys are, like, basically in love now.”

I was starting to understand why Zoey ended up in relationships so easily.

The moment a boy showed interest in her, she fell hard.

But I also suspected it was why she’d had so many breakups too—she wasn’t exactly screening potential partners so she could end up with someone she actually liked.

I’d seen how love, and following betrayal, could ruin a life.

I wasn’t willing to fall in head-first and see where it took me. I couldn’t risk it.

So why was I walking toward him anyway?

“Hi,” I said as I came up close. Zoey wasn’t behind me anymore, but I couldn’t say when she stepped away. I tucked some hair behind my ears just for something to do with my free hand, then dropped it back down and started drawing circles on the side of my Sprite can.

I wasn’t sure why I felt so nervous around him all of a sudden.

It used to be so much easier when I could make fun of him and talk to him however I wanted, knowing that it never mattered.

But this past week had changed that, and I hated that I suddenly felt less comfortable around him.

I hated that I suddenly felt like I had to be watchful of what I was saying, the way girls always seemed to tell me I had to when I liked a guy.

There were mind games you had to play—make him want you more, don’t give away too much of your hand, don’t let him see that you’re interested until it’s the right time.

I clearly wasn’t an expert at it and sometimes I worried that maybe I would push any guy away because I didn’t know how to play the game properly.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said.

From anyone else, the sentence probably would have been a little bit creepy, maybe a bit stalker-like. But from Dean, it just made my heart flutter.

“You have?” I asked hopefully, and then realized that I sounded way too eager about that. He’d obviously been joking and now I was making it weird. Great start, Lavender.

He shifted over on the rock and patted beside him, indicating for me to sit with him. I hesitated for a moment, suddenly unsure whether he even wanted company. Sure, he had that “I don’t care” attitude about him, but maybe he was actually looking for some alone time and I was totally crashing it.

“You told me you were coming to this party,” he said. Rather than looking at me, his eyes were scanning the yard, but his ever-present smirk was on his face. “I figured the backyard was my best chance of seeing you since last week I saw you outside too.”

I took a sip of my drink, my face only feeling flushed. Last week, me standing in my bra, him offering me his shirt.

“I swear I don’t spend all my time outside. Not that I’m against the outdoors or anything, but really just two coincidences.”

He grinned at me and I realized he’d been joking yet again.

Why was I acting so stupid tonight? But rather than making fun of me, he tilted his head, once again telling me to sit.

I hesitated, still not sure that it was a good idea, but I finally decided that I would seem way too rude if I kept standing, so I sat.

I regretted it a moment later, though, because as soon as I sat down, I made eye contact with a girl across the party.

“Oh no,” I muttered. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that I’d been mistaken, or at least, that she hadn’t noticed me.

But when I opened my eyes again, Dean had a pained look on his face and Tiffany was striding toward us.

She was wearing four-inch heels that were sinking into the muddy grass with every step, but she was walking with such purpose that it barely seemed to be slowing her down.

“How are you?” she asked in a sickly sweet tone as we walked up.

Then, without waiting for me to stand up or to try to greet her back at all, she grabbed my shoulders and planted a kiss on each of my cheeks.

I tried not to gag. “It is so good to see you! And you too, Dean. Wow, are your muscles even bigger than they were last week?”

Her voice was high-pitched and fake, and for a second, I couldn’t tell if she was trying to make fun of Dean or flirt with him. He seemed bemused as he looked down at his arms and then back up at her and said, “No, I don’t think so.”

“Well, all those workouts must be doing you something good,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. She tapped her fingers lightly on her skirt and then looked around. “So, uh, where’s your brother, Lav?”

There were many things I was happy to go without when Tiffany and Sebastian were broken up, but that nickname was at the top of the list.

“I’m not sure,” I said, even though I’d just seen him inside. Telling her where he was would be like throwing him into the lion’s den without a weapon. “I don’t know if he’s here.”

The smile slipped from her face. “You mean you came to a party without him?”

I raised my eyebrows at her. “Why wouldn’t I? I’m not his keeper.”

Of course I knew that Sebastian was here, and it was a fair enough assumption that we would go to the same party since we went to the same school, and therefore heard about the same events.

But I hated the insinuation that I couldn’t be here without him, as if that was the only reason I had to leave the house.

She stared at me for a long minute, looking like she was weighing whether to leave me, then turned to Dean. “Well, you probably know, right, Mr. Footballer? I’m sure you and Sebastian never go anywhere without each other. You’re, like, basically attached at the hip.”

Dean stared at her, his mouth slightly agape.

He looked like he genuinely had no idea what to say to that.

Or maybe he was just struggling to process her calling him Mr. Footballer.

I wondered whether she was this flirty with him when she was with Sebastian too or if it was reserved just for moments like this when she needed something.

“I thought you and Sebastian were broken up,” I jumped in. She turned to look at me, her mouth almost twisting into a sneer. I just blinked back innocently.

“Who said that?” she snapped.

“My brother. You know, the one who broke up with you?”

She huffed. “He always says we’re broken up but he never means it. He always comes crawling back to me eventually.”

She must have been going insane in this breakup, now that it had been over a week.

I thought of Sebastian that night, promising me he would never go back to her.

Part of me wanted to rub it in her face.

Part of me just felt bad that I had to. She was so oblivious to what was going on in front of her face.

“Well, I don’t know where he is. And even if I did, I think he’s moved on anyway.”

Tiffany’s face hardened and I cheered internally. It was nice to feel free to talk to her this way, now that I knew she and Sebastian were done for good.

“What does that mean?” She tried to keep her voice level but I could hear the venom behind the words.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dean looking at me with interest as well.

I knew I was going to have to tread carefully here.

I didn’t know anything about Sebastian and Nora, and it was possible that I was reading too much into him inviting her here.

But Tiffany needed to learn that Sebastian wasn’t just waiting around to get back together with her.

“Oh, you know, I just saw him kind of talking to this girl at school,” I said airily. “She was really pretty. I’m not sure of her name, but I think she’s also a brunette, like you. Maybe he has a type.”

If looks could kill, hers would right then.

I hadn’t been planning on telling her who I thought Sebastian might be interested in, both because I wasn’t sure if I was right and because I couldn’t say it in front of Dean, but if I’d been planning to, the expression on her face would have made me decide against it. She looked like she was out for blood.

“As if he thinks he can do better than me,” Tiffany spat.

I shrugged. “Maybe he thinks he can find a better girlfriend who won’t cheat on him every other day.”

She pointed an accusing finger at me, almost jabbing me in the eye with her sharp nail. “I never cheated on your brother.”

I grabbed her hand in mine and pushed it back down to her side.

As she stared with fire in her eyes, I reminded her, “You can’t really twist history now.

Remember who was the one to catch you in the supply closet?

” I saw someone walking toward us out of the corner of my eye, and smiled devilishly when I realized it was Ashton.

“Oh look, your other boyfriend’s waiting. ”

She spun around so quickly that I thought she might get whiplash, probably assuming that I was saying Sebastian was there. When she saw Ashton, her face just grew even angrier. She glared at me, then she stomped off, her stupid heels getting stuck in the mud all the way back.

Dean leaned in close to me, his chest pressing into my arm. His breath tickled my ear as he murmured, “That was mean.”

I turned my head toward him, just enough that I could see his face and blinked slowly.

Had he always been willing to sit this close to me?

Had he always liked to whisper in my ear as he’d done in class and at the soccer match the other day?

I found it hard to believe that I’d just forgotten about all the previous times he’d done this before this week—but if he hadn’t, it made me wonder if something had changed for him as well.

“She deserved it,” I replied.

He grinned and he shifted, moving an inch away from me. Not so close that we were pressed up against each other, but also not so far away that an onlooker would assume we were just friends.

“Who’s the girl that Sebastian’s been hanging around with?” he asked curiously.

“Nobody,” I sighed. Maybe I could have thought of a girl in the grade who would be interested in Sebastian—the number was large—but I didn’t want him carrying that information back to my brother. “I just wanted her off his back. They’re broken up for good.”

Dean took a sip of his drink, then mumbled, “I hope you’re right.”

In the past week, it hadn’t occurred to me that Sebastian might break his promise. I couldn’t think of any reason he would ever want to go back to her. But now, with the look on Dean’s face, I wondered if maybe I was wrong. “Why, has he said something to you?”

Dean shrugged. “No, I really meant I hope you’re right. Actually, this past week, he seemed really steadfast in it. Told me he wasn’t going to go back to her no matter what.”

I let out a small sigh of relief. “Good, that’s what he told me too.”

But the seed of doubt had been planted. Tiffany wasn’t done with Sebastian, no matter how he felt about her, and I’d seen over the years how persuasive she could be. As I watched her pull Ashton’s face to hers, I started to get this weird feeling in my gut that somehow this wasn’t over.