Chapter 15
About a year ago, the senior class at Highland High started throwing bonfire parties.
The location of each bonfire event is kept secret until the day of, and then a mass text is sent out giving the GPS location of where to show up.
Elijah usually forwards the info to me and Julien.
Tonight, the GPS location has us headed to an abandoned warehouse an hour away.
Julien’s in the car with me, and Jay is behind us in his truck with Elizabeth, Hailey, and Maria.
“How’s your leg feeling?” I ask Julien.
At last week’s game, one of the players of the Highland High soccer team purposely kicked Julien, who had the ball at the time, driving his spiked shoes into Julien’s left calf.
The guy who did it, Marshall, ripped about six inches of skin off Julien's calf with his spiked cleats.
Rumor has it, the next day Elijah cornered Marshall in their student parking lot and beat the crap out of him.
“It’s healing. Doesn’t look as bad as it did when Mom took me into the hospital. I’ll probably have a scar.”
“Hey, you can impress the girls with stories about how you got it. Say it was a shark attack or something.”
“Yeah, like that scene in Jaws, where they’re sitting around and comparing wounds.” Julien chuckles.
“When do you think you’ll be able to play again?”
“Doctors think another three weeks and I should be good to go. I’ll have to go in for PT a couple of times a week for a while.” Julien looks at his phone. “The warehouse should be right up ahead.”
We can already see cars and trucks lined up all along the side of the road, and a glow of what is more than likely the bonfire creates a halo in the distance. I pull over to park behind an SUV, and Jayson parks his four-door Chevy Silverado behind me.
I hear Maria’s voice as she gets out. “Holy cow! This place is packed.”
It’s the first time Maria has joined our group to come to a bonfire party. She’s a bit high strung for my taste, but Elizabeth likes her, and they’ve been friends since middle school.
I notice Julien is walking with a slight limp and wonder if his leg is bothering him more than he lets on.
I’ll make sure to keep an eye on him tonight.
At the moment, my eye is all on Elizabeth.
She looks so pretty in her black skinny jeans, black knee-high leather boots, and green blouse that hangs off one shoulder.
Her hair is done up in some sort of fancy braid that wraps around her neck to fall on the right side of her shoulder.
Jay says something to her, and her face lights up before her head tilts back and a lilting laughter leaves her throat.
I watch as he pushes her up against the side of his truck and kisses her neck, sending her into a fit of giggles.
My jaw clamps down hard. Hailey runs over and playfully pushes Jay off of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth loops her arm through her sister’s, and they walk together toward the bonfire.
Jay jogs up behind Elizabeth and smacks her on the butt before dipping his hand into the back pocket of her jeans.
“Hey tall, dark, and handsome,” Maria says as she comes over. “Aren’t you coming?”
I sigh. “Yeah.” I lock my car.
Maria follows where my gaze has been locked for the past several minutes. “Oh. Um, okay,” she stutters. Being Elizabeth’s friend for so long, Maria knows our history.
“Hey, I can be your wingman tonight if you want. You know, my Goose to your Maverick.” She's referring to the movie Top Gun.
“As long as I don’t have to sing.”
Her eyes go big at me. “What! You haven’t lost that loving feeling?”
“Nope.”
“Don’t you feel the need for speed?”
“Already drive a Dodge Hellcat, so I’m good.”
“Wanna buzz the tower?” Maria hip bumps me, and I laugh.
I look down at her. “You’re a riot, Goose.”
“I have my special talents, Mav,” she says and points a finger gun at me.
“God, you’re corny as hell.”
“But I’m a hell of a lot of fun,” she says, patting my arm. I look to where Elizabeth and Jay are up ahead. Elizabeth is glancing back at us, a frown on her face.
“Come on,” Maria pulls my arm, “it’s my first time at one of these famous bonfire parties and I’m in the mood to try my first beer. You can be my DDB.”
“DDB?”
“Designated Drinking Buddy. Keep up,” she teases.
We make our way to where the rest of the gang is standing. Elizabeth pulls Maria away from me and I hear her ask Maria, “What is that all about?” before a guy I know from the Fields calls out to me.
“You made it!” Fallon shouts. He and a few other guys from Highland High, whose names I don’t remember, approach and we do that weird guy handshake. “How the hell are ya, man?”
“Can’t complain. You?”
“All’s good, all’s good.” I do a double take when I notice Jacinda hanging on Fallon’s side. He has his arm wrapped around her back, hand resting under her armpit. My gaze drops briefly to where Fallon’s hand is, because, well, I’m a guy. Jacinda notices and smiles at me.
Julien comes up to my side. “Hey, Fallon.” I guess he knows the other guys too because he says their names in greeting
“Dude! Heard about what happened at the game. How’re you doing?”
“A little sore, but better. Thanks for asking.”
“Yeah, I know Marshall. He’s a total douchebag. Rumor is he got a beat down from Elijah.”
“Wouldn’t know,” Julien replies.
Fallon grins. “Uh huh.” Elijah must have arrived sometime while we were talking because he’s standing next to Julien.
“Speak of the devil,” Fallon grins. “Heard you kicked Marshall's ass.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” is all Elijah says, but none of us miss the bandage he has around his right hand.
“Uh huh,” Fallon says again. Elijah and Julien walk off, lost in their own conversation. Fallon and I make small talk for another five minutes, mostly about next week’s race at the Fields.
“You racing your ‘Cat next week, yeah?”
“Don’t think so. Dad and I are planning on installing a new fuel system upgrade, so I’ll more than likely be bringing the bike. You know me—I don’t care what I ride as long as I race.”
“Awesome, man.” Fallon looks over my shoulder. "I see kitten's here," he begins, but is interrupted when someone yells out his name. “Yeah! Hold on!” he yells back. “Catch you later, man.”
Jacinda looks back at me as Fallon drags her away. “See ya around, Ryder.”
Jayson is next to arrive, handing me a beer. “I would stay away from that one,” he warns, tipping his bottle toward where Fallon and Jacinda are now standing with a group of guys. He takes a long pull from his bottle, guzzling over half of it.
“Not interested, so doesn’t matter,” I tell him before glancing in Elizabeth’s direction.
“Well, Jacinda definitely is interested,” he snickers. “Ry, you should—,” but he stops when Maria as she runs over, pulling Elizabeth and Hailey behind her.
“I’m so going to get drunk tonight!” Maria shouts.
“That’s not something you want to be announcing to everyone here,” Elizabeth warns her as several boys’ heads turn our way after Maria’s enthusiastic announcement. “Besides, Mar, you’ve never been drunk in your life.”
“Oh, please, chica. You never drink. But tonight’s the night that I am going to let loose.
I’ve got you and Mav to back me up and protect me,” she winks at me.
“Oh my God!” she screeches, distracted by a couple making out against the abandoned warehouse.
Maria shields her eyes with her hand. “I really do need to get drunk to get that image out of my head.”
Jayson grabs the beer he recently handed to me and steals it for himself. “Get used to it. Stuff like that is normal at these parties,” Jayson informs her.
Since it’s Maria’s first bonfire party, I give her a couple of important tips. “Okay, Goose. There are two rules to remember.
“What, like don’t talk about fight club, or what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?”
“Close, but good try.” I hold up my index finger, “Rule #1: Don’t accept a drink from anyone,” then lift my middle finger, “and Rule #2: Just say no to drugs.
Maria snorts and pulls the fingers I'm holding up to her head and gives me a mock salute using them. “Yes, sir!”
Elizabeth has been watching our exchange, a scowl on her face, and opens her mouth to say something, but Maria once again interrupts by squealing loudly. Jesus, this girl is loud
Someone has brought Bluetooth speakers and hooks up their phone to blast out music. “Hell yeah! Let’s dance!” She and Hailey run off and begin dancing around the bonfire.
Jayson kisses the side of Elizabeth’s cheek and tells her to join the girls. “Nah, I’m good here,” she replies, taking a sip of her water.
“Lizzie! Get over here!” Maria shouts, jumping up and down, rocking out to the music.
“Baby, go have some fun.” He gives Elizabeth a nudge. We both know she’s dying to get out there. Her hips are already moving to the beat of the music.
A girl passes in front us, carrying four beers. Jayson reaches out and snags two.
“Hey!” the girl exclaims before she sees it’s Jayson.
“Oh!” the girl says before blushing bright red. “Hi, Jayson. Hi, Ryder,” the girl says to us. Elizabeth frowns. She’s been doing that a lot tonight.
“Thanks.” Jayson winks at the girl and turns back around to Elizabeth and me, completely ignoring her. We hear a humph as she stomps off.
“Lizzie! Come on!” Maria and Hailey both shout out.
“Elizabeth, seriously. Go dance,” I tell her.
Jayson pops the top off one of the bottles he stole.
“Are you sure?” she asks me, looking warily between me and Jayson.
“Elizabeth, for Pete's sake, get over here!” Hailey calls out.
Elizabeth hesitates, unsure about what she should do. I feel bad for her knowing she’s more than likely going to be nursing a drunk Jayson later tonight at the rate he’s going. I'll need to find Julien and tell him not to drink so he can drive them home.
“Go, Elizabeth. I got him,” I assure her.
She links her pinky with mine and squeezes before leaving to join the girls.
I turn to Jayson after she’s out of earshot. “You need to slow down.” I motion to the bottle in his hand.
“Whatever, man. I don’t need a babysitter,” he slurs slightly, somewhat buzzed and heading toward tipsy fast.
He’s starting to tick me off with his surly mood, so I shrug and ignore him and watch Elizabeth dance around the bonfire, her braid bouncing, eyes closed, head tilted to the side, mouth slightly parted.
Maria backs up to Elizabeth. Both girls giggle as they move up and down, hands raised and fingertips reaching for the night sky.
Something stirs inside of me when I hear Elizabeth’s voice belt out the lyrics to the song she’s dancing to.
“My girlfriend is so sexy,” Jayson groans. I couldn’t agree with Jayson more. “You should hit up Maria,” he tells me.
For the second time tonight, I reply, “Not interested.”
“You guys appeared quite cozy earlier.”
“She’s just a friend,” I clip.
“Whatever. Be right back,” he says and hands me his empty beer bottle.
I watch Jayson stalk over and grab Elizabeth, smashing his mouth down on hers in a hard kiss.
She jumps, startled, but then relaxes as she weaves her arms around his neck.
I know I should turn around and leave. Why torture myself?
But that’s exactly what I do. I watch as he kisses her.
I watch as he grabs her and lifts her up.
I watch as her legs wrap around his waist. I stand there like a creeper and watch it all, wanting to be him, jealous that I’m not.
A movement beside me catches my eye.
Jacinda slides in next to me, holding out a bottle. “Hey,” she says.
“Hey,” I say back.