Chapter Eight
Chapter
eight
“AND THEN HE SAID, ON the menu for today: spam,” I said the next day as we pulled onto Theo’s street. Deja was driving, and she glided to a stop two doors down from his house and shifted her car into park.
“Ugh,” Lee groaned.
“And people liked that? They were eating up his Spam puns?” Max asked.
“I see what you did there,” I said.
“I couldn’t help myself.”
After realizing the bathroom ad hadn’t brought him even the tiniest amount of payback, I had spent the past twenty-four hours at half-hearted and mostly failed attempts at revenge. Like stealing Jensen’s mints from his locker, which I still had the combination for (he didn’t notice), contacting his ex via DM and asking for any dirt (she had none—“He was very nice to me,” she’d said), and asking Deja’s parents if they’d put up Jensen can’t eat here on their marquee (they wouldn’t, even after Deja said, “But, Mom, he is the worst and completely humiliated Finley, please!”). They didn’t budge.
“Maybe I really should make out with a random stranger tonight if it means Jensen will actually feel some kind of sting,” I said. I wasn’t going to, but I was beginning to think more and more that he wasn’t going to feel anything no matter what I did. That he didn’t care enough about me to have anything I did make any kind of difference to him.
“Yes!” Max said from the seat behind me. “I support this.”
“No,” Deja said. “I do not. I thought tonight was the night you were going to infiltrate the football team and see if you can turn them against him.”
“It is,” I agreed. I needed to focus on that. It was the only thing that might work. “Oh!” I lifted the Target bag I’d brought full of the things Jensen had left at my house over the last year. “I brought a bunch of his stuff to burn in the bonfire. Do you think Theo will have a bonfire?”
Deja shrugged. “I’ve never been privileged enough to come to one of his parties. Did he have one last time?”
“Yes, he did,” I said. “But I’ve only been to the one.”
“Were we even invited to this one?” Lee asked.
“Wait,” Deja said, eyes wide. “Were we not ?”
“He had to expect I’d bring my friends, right? I wasn’t going to come alone.”
“That would’ve been madness,” Maxwell teased.
“What are we waiting for?” Lee asked as we all sat in the car, no one making the initial move to exit the vehicle.
“People,” I said.
“What?” he asked.
“There are hardly any cars.” I pointed at the street. “We must’ve come too early.”
“I thought we were late—fashionably late,” Deja said, checking the time on her phone.
The neighbor’s house that we had parked directly in front of was dark, the shades drawn, the porch light off. But I could still tell it was a fancy house. This whole neighborhood was nice oceanfront properties. Theo was obviously loaded.
“We should’ve brought something besides this bag of burnables. An appetizer? Chips?” I hadn’t thought much of it before because I’d assumed a lot of people would be here. Parties like that didn’t require contributions. Ten-car parties? That was a different story. “Let’s go get something…or, you know, go somewhere else entirely. I heard the drive-in is playing The Purge. That sounds very cathartic right now.”
“No, it’s fine,” Lee said. “It will be fine. We’re not leaving.”
“Jensen isn’t here,” I said, noting the cars on the street. He often ended up at parties where the rest of the team was, regardless of who was throwing it.
“That’s a good thing, right?” Lee said. “You don’t want him here if you’re trying to get in good with the rest of the guys.”
“She looks hot,” Maxwell said. “ I wanted him here.”
“You do look hot,” Deja said with a nod. “Like a rave goddess.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means you look like you’re ready for a dance party, all wild wavy hair, smoky eyes, and flared jeans. I love it.” Max opened his car door, making the final decision for all of us. “We can’t let that go to waste.”
Lee gripped both my shoulders from behind. “You got this.”
I took a deep breath. I had this. Make friends with the football players. Turn them against Jensen. Make football the least fun part of his life. Mission accomplished.
“I bet more people will come later,” Maxwell said. “That’s how these parties work. They last all night.”
He was probably right. We weren’t exactly the party type. I’d been to a total of two parties my entire high school career so far, both while dating Jensen. Our fashionably late was most likely everyone else’s way too early.
I pushed my door open and stepped onto the sidewalk.
“The bag,” Maxwell said, pointing to the floor of the passenger seat, where I had left it.
“Shouldn’t I leave it here until later?”
“If you leave it here, you’ll never do it!” Deja called, already several steps ahead.
“Fine.” I scooped up the plastic Target bag by the handles and shut the door.
“Did Jensen have any backlash from that message Maxwell left at his work?” Lee asked.
Theo’s house was lit up from the path carved through the lush grass to the wide porch adorned with rails and colorful potted plants.
“I’ve heard nothing,” I said. “Knowing my luck, he probably got a promotion from it.”
“How?” Lee asked.
“Who knows. He seems to have a wish granter waiting in the wings of his life.”
“I want one of those,” Maxwell said.
“We all do,” I said.
“I feel like we should knock,” Deja whispered once we made it to the porch.
“As opposed to?” I asked.
“As opposed to walking in without knocking,” she said. “Like I would’ve done if double the cars were out front.”
“It’s definitely a knocking situation,” Lee agreed.
The door was very tall, made of some dark wood with iron accents. Maxwell pounded on the door with the side of his fist. A couple minutes later, the door swung open and a well-dressed woman stood in front of us. She had smooth dark hair and red lipstick.
“Hello,” she said. “Can I help you?”
“We’re here for…um…the party?” I said it like a question. “Theo invited us.”
Her eyebrows popped up into an expression I’d seen on Theo’s face before. At first, she had looked at us with mild interest, but after my statement, she studied each of us, from the top of our heads down to our shoes. Now was not the time to look like a rave goddess or to be gripping a Target bag, like I’d just come from shopping. The expression on her face told me she agreed with my internal thoughts. She stepped back from the door anyway, opening it wider. “Come in. I’m Theo’s mother.”
She was definitely not a call me by my first name type of mom. She was an I will run for president one day and you will not be surprised type of mom.
“I’m Finley.” I stepped inside first. My friends followed, introducing themselves as well.
“Should we take off our shoes?” Lee asked.
Mrs.Torres was wearing shoes, but I completely understood why he asked. It felt like we needed to take off our shoes.
“No, please,” she said, looking at our feet. I sensed we’d just been insulted, and I wasn’t sure why.
She closed the door softly and led the way through a tiled entry, which housed a table topped with a large flower arrangement and a huge piece of contemporary art on the wall. We walked down a short hall and into a massive great room. On one end was the biggest kitchen I had ever seen in my life. On the other end was a heavily-furnished-and-yet-still-had-plenty-of-space living room. In between those two spaces was a long table. And at that table was what must’ve been Theo’s entire family and extended family. That was what it seemed. There was nobody our age. Just many adults, probably aunts and uncles, even a grandparent or two, and a fewkids.
On the island was a large cake with the words Happy 75th Birthday, Abuela on top. Definitely not the kind of party we were expecting.
“Theodore,” Mrs.Torres said as we all came to a stop. “Your guests are here.”
Theo glanced up from his plate of food, then did a double take, his eyes traveling over my outfit and back to my overly made-up face. He said something in Spanish I didn’t understand and the whole table laughed. A smirk played on his lips. That little punk. He had done this on purpose. Was he bored? Had he done this to entertain himself? A surge of rage pulsed through me. Like I needed more humiliation in my life right now.
“Sorry we’re late,” I said to the oldest-looking woman at the table. Because even though Jensen had claimed over the hot mic to the entire school that I didn’t have good enough quick-thinking skills to host a podcast, I thought I did. “Happy birthday.” I dug into the bag of Jensen’s stuff I held and pulled out a Harry Styles vinyl. “A gift.” I set it on the table in front of her.
The woman gave me a wide smile. “Thank you so much.”
Theo stood now. “Abuela, this is Finley and her, uh…friends.” He obviously didn’t know their names. Why would he have bothered to learn those?
“Nice to meet you,” she said.
There were no more chairs at the table, but Theo pointed to a breakfast nook tucked at the back of the kitchen and raised his eyebrows at his mom. She gave a small nod.
“This way,” he said to us.
“Do we get the kids’ table?” Maxwell said under his breath as we made our way through the kitchen to the second table. It was surrounded on one side by bay windows. I could make out the ocean in the distance, the moonlight glowing on the surface of the water, but that was about it.
For a second, I thought Theo was going to drop us off at the table and rejoin his family, but he sat down. We did too. The noise at the other table, which had gone completely silent when we were announced, picked up again, a low vibration of voices.
“Theodore, huh?”
“Yes.” Theo laughed a little. “You actually came.”
“I thought it was a real party,” I said with narrowed eyes.
“You asked if I was having a party,” he said. “You didn’t ask what kind.”
“The word party implies what kind,” I said.
Max popped his eyebrows. “If you were looking for an excuse to get us here, you just had to say so.” When saying the word us, he put his hand on my arm.
I batted it away.
“I’m Max, by the way,” he said. Deja and Lee introduced themselves as well. Deja had a look on her face that said she wasn’t happy. That this just confirmed he was a jerk and I needed to stay away from him. I agreed.
“Nice to meet you,” Theo responded. “Do you want to eat? There’s food on the island. You can help yourself. The plates are on the end.”
Lee and Maxwell exchanged a look, then rose simultaneously and headed for the food.
“They’re dating, right?” Theo asked.
“Do you have a problem with that?” I asked.
“No, I don’t. It was just a question.”
I took a deep breath. I was not going to let him get to me. Or at least not make it so obvious that he was.
“I’m getting food too.” Deja stood. She tried to pull on my arm, take me with her, probably not wanting to leave me alone with Theo. But she didn’t need to worry—there was no danger in leaving me with him, my irritation toward him was only growing. I gave her a slight nod, and she let go.
Then it was just me and Theo. He leaned against the back of his chair and nodded toward the Target bag I still clutched. “My grandma looked like a Harry Styles fan to you?”
“Believe me, it was the most appropriate gift in here.”
A lazy smile came onto his face. “Should I be worried about what else is in there?”
“It’s some stuff Jensen left at my house. I was going to burn it in the bonfire I assumed you’d be having.”
He chuckled. “Nice.” He sounded like he meant it. Like he was happy I was burning Jensen’s things.
“Why do you hate him?” I asked.
He narrowed his eyes at me like my question was some sort of test. Instead of answering, he asked, “Why does he hate me ?”
“You hogged his spot for three years. Didn’t even have a single sick day…until that last game. Are you the healthiest high school student on earth?”
Theo’s eyes flitted to the table behind me full of his relatives, then back to me. He held his arms out to the sides. “I mean, look at me.”
“I don’t think viruses care how hot you are.”
He let out a single laugh. “I was referring to my peak physical condition, but thank you.”
“ That’s what Jensen said…about you.”
“He appreciated my peak physical condition?”
I shook my head. “No. He said you were full of yourself.”
“Who else am I going to be full of?”
“Said you thought you were better than you are.”
“I was definitely better than him.”
“And now? Are you better?” I asked. “From your injury?” My eyes drifted down to his knee, covered by his jeans.
His eyes went hard. “What do you know about my injury?”
“Just that it knocked you out of the last game of the season.” I had seen him on crutches a few times at school directly following that game, and he still limped a little…although I hadn’t noticed a limp since that time in the diner, so maybe he didn’t. “And that Jensen got to play in a game for the first time.”
“Yeah…,” he said, looking at me like he wanted to say more, but before he did, Maxwell and Lee returned with plates of delicious-looking enchiladas, rice, chips, and guacamole.
“This is the kind of party I like,” Maxwell said as he sat. “Just saying.”
“Excuse me for a moment,” Theo said, all formal, seeming to forget we were his peers and not the people across the room. When he left and reclaimed his chair at the big table, I was sure we’d lost him for good. He started what looked like a heated conversation with his mom. Probably telling her that he hadn’t meant for me to come and that he was sorry I had ruined their night with my presence.
“So for real,” Deja said, “do you think he did this just to embarrass you? Are you a jerk magnet? Should we leave?”
“I don’t know,” I said as an answer to all her questions.
“We’re not leaving before I finish my food,” Maxwell said.
Lee narrowed his eyes in Theo’s direction, his fork full of enchilada, cheese stretching from the plate to the tines. “I say we stay. I sense he might surprise us.”