Sean turned and stared out the back window, looking right at the darkness where Reed was sitting. He inhaled deeply, pursing his lips tightly. He turned to me finally. “Yeah…he is.”
I nodded, but I really didn’t know what the hell to do. I promised Sean I wouldn’t sit in his truck and sulk, so he left me alone for a few minutes to gather up my thoughts and courage.
Lights glimmered through the brush ahead of me and I knew it was another car coming to the party. When the dusty blue of the BMW came into view, I realized Tyler had made it after all. I wasn’t sure if that was such a good idea now, despite the fact that I invited him here under friendly conditions. My stomach turned a bit as I thought about drunken Reed. Time to suck it up, Nolan.
When I left the comfort of Sean’s truck, I headed to the center of the campsite where Sarah and Sienna were still gathered with a few other girls. I whispered to Sienna that the friend I had invited was here, and she came over to greet him with me.
Tyler was brushing back his longer blond hair with his hand and tucking it neatly under his plaid Hurley hat, looking around the crowded corners for someone he recognized. Looking for me, I thought. I caught the relief that washed over his face when he saw us walking up.
“Hey, you made it,” I said as we came closer to him. He was wearing long red board shorts and a form-fitting white T-shirt. I knew what Sienna was signaling to me when she kicked my shin with her leg, trying to be subtle. Tyler could be classified as a ‘hottie.’ He wore everything just right. His light blue eyes were expressive and his hair was out of the pages of a magazine ad. His skin was super tan from his time at the pool and from diving, which also meant his physique was pretty spectacular, too.
But as gorgeous as he was, he still wasn’t the best looking guy at the party. No, that title was held by the drunk heartbreaker lurking in the shadows. The one whose presence terrified me, and whose secret terrified me even more.
“Thanks for inviting me; this is pretty awesome,” Tyler said, startling me back to the present. “We don’t do anything like this in Chandler. I mean, we party… but it’s usually in someone’s back yard.”
We laughed a bit. I introduced him to Sienna and he shook her hand. Uncomfortable by his good looks, she giggled a little uncontrollably. It was cute to see my put-together, level-headed friend a little flustered.
I brought Tyler over to the pickup truck and offered him a drink, a little excited that he just grabbed a bottle of water. I didn’t think I could handle more than Reed being drunk tonight. We all sat on the edge of the truck bed for a bit as I pointed out various people at the party to Tyler and explained to him the inner-workings of the football status circle in Coolidge. Who was in, who was out, why the cheerleaders were all drooling over certain seniors who were looking to sign huge contracts with Division I schools, why we were historically so good at football, how the entire town shuts down on Fridays. Pretty much everything except our amazing quarterback, and thoughtfully, he didn’t ask anything about it either.
A good hour had passed with Sienna, Tyler and I making up conversations for the various people at the party. Sienna and I had a good time watching the various forward girls from our school come over and feign interest in us just so they could talk to Tyler. He was always polite, but was also sure to tell people that I had invited him here.
Every so often I stole a glance to the black Mustang. Reed was still there. Still drinking. He was hanging out with a couple of the seniors on the team now, trying to keep up with rap lyrics to some song they were blasting. I didn’t recognize it, but every now and then it had the word ‘whore’ in it. I knew because all three of them would sing it loudly and start laughing.
As the night grew longer, Reed and his drunken crew were getting louder and more obnoxious, but they still stayed in their corner. Sarah had finally dragged the three of us out into the center of the party. She said she wanted to dance more, but I think she wanted to show off some of her curvier moves for Tyler. Amazingly, he wasn’t interested. He was instead watching me…which, while it was nice to have positive attention after having my heart smashed, it also made me anxious, like a time bomb was waiting to go off.
Sarah made Sean put on her favorite song again and made us do the dance routine that she had drilled into my mind. Sienna joined in to make me more comfortable and we were soon once again lost in the silly happiness of it. When the song ended, Tyler started clapping, I think to make me feel better about how embarrassed I was that Sarah was making me show him my poor dance skills.
When my back was to him, though, his clapping was soon joined by someone else’s. I turned to see Reed clapping, with a bottle tucked in his arm so he could use both of his hands. His eyes were blood red, and his face was puffy. He had his cargo shorts on and a long-sleeved gray T. He was messy and unshaven. I had never seen him like this, and it made me feel sad.