20. Lilah #3
“Nothing. Don’t open the envelope until you get the signal.” His phone buzzed and he looked at the screen. That jaw clenched even harder this time, his lips smashed together and his fingers turned white around his phone. He backed away. “I need to go do something.”
Looking around the room, I saw that everyone else had one too. Some in their pockets, others tucked under their arms or in their hands. I turned it over and stared at the gold wax seal.
What the hell had I gotten myself into?
Mason walked back over with Zoe under one arm and her face covered in chocolate. “I’m taking her to the bathroom to get cleaned up.” A black envelope stuck out of his back pocket.
Someone else arrived through the giant-sized door. People ran around outside on the patio. Past the buffet, on the movie-theater-sized TV that was split into four screens, animated characters on various vehicles raced across a mind-bending track above the clouds.
I stood there, trying to figure out what to do while my stomach rumbled. Were other people eating yet?
“Lilah.” Calder walked over and put a plate in my hands.
“Hey, Calder.”
He guided me toward the food. “Let’s eat. I don’t know what everyone else is waiting for.”
I fell in step beside him at the buffet and found even more food than I’d initially seen. There were salads, breads, so many different types of every dish.
Galen’s words twisted and tumbled inside my head. Whatever went down with you and Mason. I added food to my plate robotically.
“The bacon-wrapped asparagus are some of the best things I’ve ever had.
” Calder scooped up ten with the tongs and put them on his plate before picking up a couple more and gesturing to mine.
I let him put them beside something called, according to the little placard, crispy million-layer potato pavé.
Tongs still touching my plate, he paused and looked up at me. His eyes were intense but earnest. “Glad to see you here.”
I waited a beat but couldn’t overcome the desire to scream in frustration. “Why is it that everyone seems so happy to see me now?” I let the bitterness leech into my words. “If I’d showed up a month ago, would you still have been happy? When you saw me at that party, you didn’t look glad.”
He sucked in a breath and cut his eyes away. “Mason was really—”
Anger bubbled up at how everyone seemed to be pleading Mason’s case. First Paige, strangely enough, then Galen, and now the granite wonder himself was going to repaint the story of Mason and me.
We kissed. I put on a pretty dress and got in his car and all anyone seemed to be talking about was how hard it had been on him as if he hadn’t made it his mission to wreck my last year of high school and potentially sabotage my chances at college.
“Let me guess. Mason is really sorry for what he did and he’s changed.
And if I just give him a chance, he’ll make it all up to me.
” The kindling, warm glow of attraction had been fanned into sparks of anger.
Kissing Mason had been a mistake. I’d moved too fast and everyone seemed hell-bent on pushing things even faster.
Calder’s mouth opened and closed.
I shoved my plate toward him, not caring if he caught it or not. “I need some air.”
“Hey, Lilah!” Erik swerved toward me.
I waved him off. “Not now, Erik.”
He made a sound like a kicked puppy, but at the moment I didn’t care.
I marched to the back of the house and straight out the sliding door to the patio, where a few other seniors I recognized laughed and drank from glasses. No red plastic cups here.
“Oh, Lilah, I love your dress.” A girl in a blue top and black skirt stood from one of the sun loungers.
Another senior walked up with her strappy heels dangling from her fingers. “It’s Hawthorne Prep red. Where did you get it?”
“My mom made it.”
They both oohed and ahhed over the dress while I shifted from foot to foot, antsy to no longer be here.
The compliments were foreign, and I still wasn’t sure I could take them as just that.
What would they say about my dress if I hadn’t shown up here with Mason?
Freezing air blew through the fabric. I should’ve grabbed my coat. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms.
“Come sit with us under the heater. You’ll be baking in three seconds.”
“Maybe in a bit. I just wanted to check out the pool.” Any excuse for a little breathing room.
They let me go, and I walked down the smooth white stairs to the rectangular pool with an infinity edge made of glass.
Deep breaths, Lilah. I’d have permanent goosebumps soon.
I couldn’t hide out here for long. A faint mist of steam rose from the gently rippling water.
The blue flickered and washed the whole space in dancing lights.
“Regretting coming with me?” Mason’s voice slipped in through the slow simmer of my anger.
I glanced over at him.
He stared at me with a heart-panging sadness striking that thread between us that seemed more thickly woven with each breath.
He slipped his jacket over my shoulders. Warmth glided over my skin. “Have I screwed the night up already? Do you want me to take you home?”