Chapter 11
GEMMA
“You should’ve invited them.”
This is the third time Emily’s said it since we got here an hour ago. Even though I know she’s right, even though I know that inviting Sera and Cam to my birthday would have gone a long way toward squashing this craziness between us, I just couldn’t do it. Not after what Sera did yesterday.
“She stuck a used maxipad to the front of my locker, Em,” I gripe at her. “No way was I going to invite her. Not after that.”
The truth is, I was going to. We all have the same lunch period, so I was going to put my books away and go find her to let her know that, even though things had been rough between us lately, she and Cameron were still invited to my birthday.
I had their invitations—a pair of wristbands from the club—in my pocket, ready to hand them over as a peace offering because we’ve been friends since we were in Kindergarten and there was no way I was going let Cade Montgomery, of all people, get in the way of that.
That’s when I saw it.
A big, thick white pad—the kind you get from the school nurse when you have an emergency—stuck to the front of my locker, soaked in red.
“It was just food coloring,” Emily says quietly. “Besides, we’re not even really sure it was her.”
“Yes, we are,” I shoot back. We’re sure. We just don’t want to be sure. “And I’m not speaking to her again until she apologizes.”
“I just miss them,” she confesses with a flat, wobbly smile. “I miss the way it was and I hate that this is all my fault.”
“This isn’t your fault,” I remind her, my tone harsh enough to gain the attention of one of the pool attendants. Emily and I got here early, so we could hang out a little before everyone else showed up. “This is Cade’s fault. He’s the one who kissed you, Em.”
“I know but I let him, even though I knew it would make Cam mad. I should’ve told him no, but I didn’t.
” Emily looks away from me because she doesn’t want to argue.
Our circle has narrowed considerably over the last couple of weeks and neither one of us wants to risk any ugliness between us. “You didn’t invite him did you?”
“Hell no.” As far as I’m concerned, everything that has happened—all the fighting and the cruel pranks—is his doing.
Last year I invited Cade because he’s Sera’s older brother but not this year.
This year my birthday is a Montgomery-free zone.
Just about the only decent Montgomery is Colt, but I know that if I’d invited him, he would’ve just given me a polite no thank you, out of loyalty to his baby sister.
“Good.” Emily flashes me another flat smile.
One that makes it clear that even though she’s pretending to be relieved that she won’t have to see Cade today, she doesn’t really mean it.
Looking past me, she sighs. “Beck’s here,” she says, sitting up a little straighter, her face going tight with anxiety. “He brought Riggs.”
When Emily says his name, I sit up from my lounger and whip my head around to scope out the entrance.
There’s Beck, strutting around like he owns the place, as usual, Reese glued to his side.
Towering over them is Riggs, following behind in the same pair of swim trunks he wore last year, a bright green band stretched around his thick wrist, marking him as an invited guest. When Beck asked me for two wristbands for the party, I handed them over without thinking because of course he needed two.
One for Reese and one for Riggs. It never occurred to me that he wouldn’t be here, but now…
“I don’t think Cam is with them,” Emily says beside me because she thinks that’s what I’m doing.
Why I’m staring. I’m looking for Cameron to make sure she isn’t trying to crash my pool party because I didn’t tell her what happened.
I didn’t tell her that I followed Beck, Reese, and Riggs when they snuck down to the river a few weeks ago or that Riggs had been forced to walk me home because I’m a big baby who’s afraid of the dark.
And I most certainly didn’t tell her that I told Riggs about her and Cade.
Or that I told him I wanted him to do the same thing to me.
That I wanted him to kiss me and that he flat out refused.
Even though I said I’d wanted us to be friends and that I’d hoped my stupid impulsivity hadn’t messed that up, I’ve been avoiding him.
When he comes over to our house after school, I hide in my room.
When he sleeps over at Dent’s on the weekends, I pack a bag and tell my grandpa I’m staying over at Emily’s.
When I see him in the halls at school, I turn around and walk the other way.
It’s been exhausting. And a little lonely.
I never realized how much time I spent with Riggs or how much I looked forward to seeing him every day until I didn’t.
All because I was dumb enough to open my mouth and let the truth come out.
“Of course he did,” I say before lying back on my chaise and closing my eyes, determined not to let anything kill my mood—not even Riggs Wheeler.
Emily abandoned me.
It’s not her fault, not really. She’s as white as a fish belly—that’s what Dent says.
My mom calls her skin tone alabaster. Either way, she can only take so much before she’s packing up and heading home.
She stayed for the cake—a three-tiered tower of white chocolate ganache and fresh strawberry filling, before she let me know she was going to have one of the club cars drive her home.
When I offered to ask Beck, she just shook her head and laughed.
“I haven’t seen your brother in hours, have you? ”
I haven’t. I haven’t seen Reese either.
But I have seen Riggs.
He’s everywhere I look, getting in the way.
Taking up space. Blocking out everything around him, making it impossible to pay attention to anything else.
It has nothing to do with the fact that he’s roughly the size of a bus and everything to do with the fact that I can’t stop thinking about what it would feel like if he kissed me.
“Are you sure?” I ask, even though I know I have little hope of getting her to stay. Em isn’t big on parties. She’d much rather stay at home and read. The fact that she stayed, almost to the end, is a miracle.
“I’m sure.” Looking down at herself, she shakes her head on a laugh, her thick, mahogany ponytail bobbing behind her. “I’m afraid not even the sun umbrella and SPF 100 has saved me this time.” She’s right. Her cheeks are bright pink. She’ll be lucky if she doesn’t blister.
If I’d have told her that this year, all I wanted to do for my birthday was have a sleep over and watch movies, she would’ve been over the moon. Instead, I forced her into a bathing suit so she could fry herself in the hot Texas sun.
“I’ve been a shitty friend,” I say, instantly feeling guilty. Usually, it’s Sera, Cam, and me, all taking turns keeping her company at things like this. Today it’s just been me and as soon as people started showing up, I got pulled in a million different directions, all at once.
“It’s your birthday party, Gemma,” she says with a flat smile. “I can’t expect you to sit in the corner with me all day.” Lifting the paperback in her hand, she wags it at me. “Besides, I brought my babysitter.”
“Next year, just us, okay?” I say, grabbing her hand on impulse. “You, me and—” I stop myself before I can say Sera and Cam. “Well… just us.”
“Okay.” She gives me one of her flat, barely there smiles. “Have fun.”
“I’ll see you at school on Monday,” I tell her because it’s Dent’s weekend and Beck and I are supposed to head across the river after the party.
“See you.” Flashing me another flat smile, Em walks away, skirting the pool to head into the building and to the concierge desk where she can order a car to take her home.
Now what?
Surveying the pool area, I feel my stomach drop when, like it’s been doing all day, my gaze gets snagged on Riggs. He’s standing next to the waterslide, smiling and talking to Cheyenne Maxwell while she stares up at him like she wants to climb him like a tree.
I bet Riggs would kiss her if she asked him to.
Deciding I’ve had about as much of myself as I can stand, I walk over to the edge of the pool and dive in, the shock of clear, cool water against my sun baked skin instantly taking my breath away.
Staying underwater, I swim for the waterfall on the other end of the pool.
Passing through it, I finally come up for air in the dark grotto underneath it.
Hoping to find Beck and Reese, so I can talk him into taking me home, I’m disappointed to find myself alone.
At only three-feet deep, the water comes up to my chest but I’m able to stand while I peer into the darkness.
“Beck, are you in here?” I stage whisper even though I know he’s not.
I know because if he were, he’d already have told me to get the hell out.
Defeated, I turn around to swim back the way I came so I can look somewhere else, and run straight into a wide, solid chest. Gasping softly, I take a step back and look up to find Ethan Pryce looking down at me.
Shit.
“Hey, Ethan,” I say, giving him a bright, sunny smile while unease starts to curl in my belly.
I made good on my threat to let him kiss me last weekend, here in this very spot, and I instantly regretted it because it was nothing like what I thought it would be.
It was rough and crude enough to humiliate me.
He didn’t even wait to make sure I was okay with it.
He just shoved his tongue in my mouth, hard enough to gag me.
As soon as I was able, I got away from him and ever since, I’ve been avoiding him even harder than I’ve been avoiding Riggs, although for an entirely different reason.
“I was just looking for my brother—have you seen him?”
“Yeah…” Giving me a lopsided grin, one that feels fake, Ethan reaches for me.
“I saw him and Reese sneak off to the golf course a while ago.” When his fingertips start to trace the shoulder strap of my bathing suit, I feel that unease in my stomach start to curdle and thicken into fear.
“Are you sure that’s who you were looking for? ”
Reaching up, I knock his hand away from my shoulder while my heart pinballs around my chest, so hard and fast I suddenly feel sick to my stomach. “I’m sure.”
Ethan gives me another carefully crafted grin, this one designed to hide the flat, angry look in his eyes while he lifts his hand to grip it around my arm. “I thought maybe you were looking for me.”
“I wasn’t.” Struggling to keep the panic out of my voice, I shake my head. “I’m looking for Beck.”
“You alright, Gem?”
When Ethan hears him, his hand tightens around my arm, almost like he’s warning me. “She’s fine, Wheeler.” Ethan’s carefully crafted mask collapses under the weight of his annoyance before he shoots Riggs a look over his shoulder. “Go home, no one wants you here.”
“I didn’t ask you, now did I, fuckface?” Riggs says, his tone calm and even. “I asked her. You alright, Gem?”
“Yeah.” Looking at Riggs around the set of Ethan’s shoulders, I give him a wobbly smile. “I’m okay.”
Ethan makes a smug, self-satisfied sound, still looking at Riggs like he’s something he scraped off the bottom of his shoe. “See—she’s just fine, right where she is, so why don’t you fuck off, Wheeler?”
Ignoring Ethan, Riggs looks at me, his jaw clenched.
“You want to come with me, Gem, or do you want to stay here?” Despite the question, I can hear it in his tone.
If I say I’d rather stay here, in the grotto with Ethan, Riggs will pick me up, throw me over his shoulder and haul me out of here before I can even finish my answer.
So, I guess it’s a good thing that I’d rather eat the maxi pad Sera stuck to my locker, than stay here alone with Ethan for one more second.
“I’ll come with you.”
When he hears my answer, Ethan turns around to look down at me. “Seriously?” Giving me a nasty smile, meant to shame and embarrass me, he shakes his head. “If you leave with him, that’s it. I won’t give you another chance.”
“Promise?” Not waiting for his answer, I pull my arm from his grip and lower myself into the water to swim away from him. Stopping a few feet away from Riggs, I stand again. “I want to go home. I was looking for Beck to ask him to take me but I can’t find him.”
“Beck gave me his truck keys,” Riggs says with a carefully guarded look in his eye. “If you’re sure you want to go home, I can take you.”