“Yes.”
Hauling me off the bed, he shoved me in the direction of the door, sending me staggering into the wall. “Get. Out.”
“Carter, I—”
“Now.”
For a moment, we stared at each other. The unmistakable anger and hurt in his eyes was too much, and I realised what a mistake I’d made in coming here.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, then turned on my heel and left. There was nothing more I could say.
22
The car park in front of the large warehouse was completely full. After circling around fruitlessly, Lena spun the wheel and turned out of the car park, coming to a halt in front of a roll-up door with a “no parking” sign on it. “This’ll do. No one will be around to check at this time of night.” We piled out, and I stretched my arms up in the air, working out the kinks from being crammed in the back seat next to Lena’s friends. My T-shirt rode up, exposing a sliver of skin, and I tugged it back down again. This outfit…it was most definitely out of my comfort zone. Not as skimpy as my Fright Night costume, but the difference was, I couldn’t hide behind a mask this time. I wore a loose black T-shirt, strategically ripped, exposing my cleavage, and tiny black shorts that made me cringe when I’d put them on. Of course, this was Lena’s doing. She wore similar, but with her tall, slim body she looked like a model.
At least I had on flat shoes. Old black Chucks, to be exact. I didn’t know exactly what was going to be happening at this party, but we’d been told to wear clothes that we didn’t mind being ruined.
There was a ball of nerves in my stomach, but overriding that, there was a sense of pure excitement. This party to celebrate the birthdays of three members of the AHS football team was open invite, so even though I knew that Carter would be there, I was hoping it would be busy enough that I wouldn’t run into him. After everything that had happened, he had backed right off, and although I couldn’t stop the way I felt about him, I was starting to realise that maybe things were better this way. We’d had our moments, when I thought we’d really connected, but I was starting to come around to his way of thinking—I was no good for him.
I pushed aside thoughts of Carter and turned to face the reason for my excitement. The party.
People milled around outside the large warehouse, set slightly apart from the others. Flashing lights and the thud of heavy bass spilled from the cracked panes of the small, high windows running down the side of the building.
“I can do this,” I mumbled to myself, and then the old familiar panic rose in me as I took a step closer to Lena.
As if she was aware of my thoughts, she squeezed my arm. “I’m proud of you. All you need to do is fake it until it becomes real, yeah?”
“Okay.” Pushing my misgivings way, way down, I allowed the excitement to bubble up as we entered the building, passing through an entrance foyer and into the main warehouse.
The dark, cavernous space was lit by pulsing neon lights in bright colours. Machines pumped out slow, lazy clouds of smoke, curling and drifting around people’s feet and up into the air, making everything appear hazy. At the far end of the space a DJ was up on a platform, and at the near end, close to the entrance, was a bar area. Bodies filled the space, most covered in splashes of colourful neon paint, glowing under the black lights.
“Drinks first. Can you get them? I’m not legally old enough.” Lena gave me her best innocent look, speaking loudly to be heard over the music.
Raising a brow, I stared at her. “You expect me to believe you don’t own a fake ID?”
She smirked. “But yours is real. Get us both whatever you want to drink. I’ll only have one since I’m driving.”
“Fine.” After pushing my way to the bar, I scanned through the limited options available and ordered us both bottles of some fruity alcoholic cider. Returning to Lena, I handed her one of the bottles.
After taking a sip, she turned to me with a grin. “Rule one. Finish this drink, but don’t leave it unattended. Rule two. Dance for at least one song. Rule three. Find a boy, and practice flirting with him.”
“I have to do all that?” Actually, it all sounded easy enough, except for the flirting part.
She nodded, still smiling at me.
I sighed. “Fine. Are you going to do the same?”
“Yep. Except the flirting.”
“Why do I have to flirt and you don’t?”
Her eyes shuttered. “Because there’s no one here that I want.”
I raised a brow at her firm tone but didn’t push it. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.” Lifting the bottle to my lips, I let the ice-cold berry liquid slide down my throat. “Mmm. This is nice.”
“You don’t drink much, do you? Best not to have too much,” she warned me.
We moved further into the warehouse, among the crowd of bodies, weaving in and out. I kept a tight grip on Lena’s hand, not wanting to lose her in the crowd. She followed her friends towards a doorway at the far side of the warehouse, and after pushing our way through a crowded corridor, we ended up back outside, this time around the back of the warehouse. There was a huge open space, all pitted, cracked concrete, and filling around two-thirds of it was what looked like a kind of obstacle course made of what I would class as junk—sheets of corrugated cardboard, crates, and tyres. People were running through it, being pelted with water balloons filled with bright neon paint, and colourful smoke bombs were being set off at regular intervals along the course, reducing the visibility. Over at the side, the large red shipping
