“I wouldn’t know. We’re not together anymore.”
“Oh,” she says. She’s trying to seem sympathetic, but I can see right through her bullshit. “That’s a shame. You two were so adorable together.”
“Who’s Brady?” Adam asks.
“No one,” I answer, but Michelle can’t keep her big mouth shut.
“You guys dated for like . . . how long? Like all of high school, right?”
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“Are you seriously fucking asking me that?”
Whoa. I did not mean to snap like that.
Michelle’s eyes get huge, and I’m stumbling to apologize. “Sorry . . . I mean . . . I just really don’t want to talk about it.”
“Well you could have just said so . . .”
I sigh and chew on my lip. I feel like everyone is staring at me—probably because they are. I sit down next to Adam mostly just to try to blend in so that I’m not so easy to gape at. I’m thankful when the conversation moves away from me and my horrendously failed love life, and even more thankful when a server pops by to take our drink orders. I order another shot and a Long Island iced tea.
“Going out with a bang?” Adam asks in my ear, reminding me again that this is our last night together.
With my cheek against his, I share a secret. “I’m going to miss you.”
WHY DID I JUST SAY THAT?!
Adam pulls away to look at me, and I’m terrified of what he’s going to say. I probably just freaked him the hell out. I’m going to miss you? He’s known me for all of two days! He opens his mouth like he’s going to say something, but then he closes it. Finally, he leans back in and says, “No, you won’t.”
When he pulls away to read my expression, I’m frowning. Like hell I won’t miss him.
He leans in again. “You’ll see me twice a week in class, and probably on weekends when I kidnap you for tutoring.”
Okay, I seriously might cry. Instead, I laugh. “Promise?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t make promises. But I’ll show you.”
It might be the drinks, or it might be Adam’s non-promise, but I’m suddenly not feeling nearly so bitchy. When Joel asks me to dance, I even let him pull me onto the dance floor.
He spins me and dips me and grinds against me a little too provocatively, but I can tell that’s just him and has nothing to do with me, so I let myself go with it, and we end up laughing hysterically on the dance floor at our ridiculous moves. By the time I’m following him back to the table, my hand fisted in the back of his button-down T-shirt as he leads me through the crowd, I’ve worked up a thin sheen of sweat. I nearly stop dead in my tracks when I see how cozy Michelle and Adam have gotten, but I somehow command my feet to keep moving forward.
Michelle has one hand cupped around Adam’s jaw, turning his head into her. Their foreheads are touching, and he’s grinning at her. She giggles and leans to the side to whisper something in his ear, and he licks his lips as he listens.
I roughly slide in next to him, accidentally throwing myself in a little too hard and slamming right into his back. When his head knocks against Michelle’s and they both yelp, I start giggling uncontrollably.
“Oh my God,” I say through giggles, “I’m sorry.”
Adam chuckles and rubs his forehead. “Thanks for that.”
“Any time.” I giggle some more, my eyes drifting over everyone at the table until I catch Shawn smirking at me. His eyes are glassy, proof of the collection of empty glasses he’s lined up over at his side of the table, not including any shots he had with Adam before we got here. “Feeling good, Shawn?” I tease.
He chuckles. “I’m feeling peachy!”
When my heart stops beating, he laughs a little harder. I really need to stop letting him catch me so off guard.
Michelle continues throwing herself at Adam as we all talk and drink, and just when I think I can’t take anymore, she asks him if he’s drunk enough to dance yet.
He chuckles and shakes his head. “Not even close.”
“Then do you want to get out of here?” She says it quietly enough so that most of the table can’t hear, but my ears were tuned in to their conversation as if national security depended on it. I immediately stand up to let Adam out of the seat, not wanting to hear the way his voice sounds when he eventually asks me to move. My sudden movement causes him to look up at me. His expression is completely blank, and I can’t read it for shit, but his actions scream volumes. He starts scooting out of the seat, with Michelle practically joined to his hip.
I bite down so hard on the inside of my lip that I’m pretty sure I’m about to draw blood, but then I hear Shawn laughing. “Adam!” he shouts, and Adam stops scooting to look over at him. “Christ, man, you still don’t know who she is, do you?!”
Adam turns back toward Michelle and scrunches his eyebrows. “Huh?”
“Not her!” Shawn yells. Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. “Her!” He points his finger at me, and it freezes me to the bone.
Adam’s eyes slowly swing back to mine. “What is he talking about?” he asks me, looking thoroughly confused.
“Nothing,” I sputter. “He’s drunk.”
“Just tell him who you are!” Shawn shouts, and I shoot him a threatening glare. I’m going to kill him. I’m seriously going to kill him!