“Actually, Mom,” I said, “I’ll be out for dinner. Got invited to a party tonight. Sicily’s gonna drive. So I just came to drop your car.”
“Oh?” Her courteous grin grew into a natural, bright one. “I’m very excited to hear that, sweetheart.”
She’d probably be less enthused if she knew whose house the party was at, so I decided to keep that information to myself. “Yeah, so I may be a little late coming home, but I promise not to—”
She waved her hands through the air. “Sweetheart, I trust you. Go. Have fun.”
I smiled, glad that, for once, my mom was happy with the way things were with me. “I will. Thanks, Mom.”
After enjoying a few more minutes of casual conversation with my mom and washing the ridiculous spray out of my hair, Sicily and I headed out for the Loche’s estate. Though I tended not to trust anyone else with my fate, I was okay letting Sicily drive because it didn’t make me comfortable bringing my mom’s car anywhere near the Loches. If push came to shove and I needed to get out quickly without Sicily, I could just walk until I was far enough away and then call my mom for a ride. At that point, I’d probably have to reveal where I was, to begin with, but that was a smaller sacrifice by comparison if I found I had to get out of dodge.
The estate was somehow larger than I remembered it. The gates were open, and hired officers directed people into a parking lot. There was a sea of students loading out of vehicles and excitedly making their ways toward the party, which appeared to be down the hill at a smaller but still grand version of the Loches house. A pathway lined with black and white balloons and tea lights led the way past the main house and down to the smaller one, where booming music could already be heard.
“What’s that?” I asked. “A whole house just for parties?”
“That’s Nathan’s house,” Sicily said.
A whole train could have hit me and left me less shocked than that statement. “His house?”
“Yeah. He lives separate from his parents, and his birthday party is hosted at his house every year. It looks small compared to this thing.” Sicily waved his hand in the direction of the main estate house. “But it’s actually huge. Still, like, four times the size of my house.”
It shouldn’t have surprised me that Connor and Alicia would have a whole house built for their precious child, but it did. Giving him that level of freedom was just a bad idea. Then again, they thought that the world began and ended with him, so they probably believed he was beyond capable.
We walked down the path and eventually reached the house, which was packed with people both inside and out. In Maine, late September can be a bit chilly, but people didn’t seem to mind as they hung out around the property, some of them even jumping into the massive, Olympic-sized pool about halfway between the main house and Nathan’s smaller house. To the right, a huge bonfire roared, and people hung out around it, drinking, eating, dancing, and laughing.
A few students greeted Sicily, and though at first the attention we drew didn’t make me very happy, Cherri’s head poked out from one of the rooms, and then she beelined straight for us. She looked unbelievable in a black cocktail dress with her hair out of its earlier pigtails and flowing down her shoulders.
“You made it!” she yelled over the music.
“We did!” Sicily replied, and I side-eyed him because she wasn’t talking to him, but that didn’t make it less amusing. “How are ya?”
Cherri was never the type to be mean, so even though she probably couldn’t give two shits about Sicily, she folded her arms behind her back and said, “I’m good. How are you?”
“Good. Listen, where’s the grub?” he asked.
She motioned off in a direction a bit behind us and to Sicily’s left. “The kitchen. There’s a full spread. Go crazy.”
Sicily tapped my arm and then rushed off, which I was glad for. Cherri’s cheeks had developed a light pink hue, and she nodded her head back behind me. “So, hey. Wanna find a spot to talk? I know all the good nooks and crannies.”
Finding nooks and crannies with Cherri was exactly the kind of thing I was interested in. “Yeah.”
She turned around, and I followed her through the foyer of the house and out through a pair of sliding glass doors that led to another smaller pool in the back of the house. Not as many people were out there, but there were still enough people that no one seemed to be paying us much mind. I could see that all the members of The Royal Court, apart from Nathan and Brayden, were hanging out somewhere out there. Cherri led me past the pool, out through a gate, and down a path to an isolated gazebo way in the back of the property. It was totally isolated, and the roars of the party were a muted, distant rumble. The pitched roof was lined with white lights, and the gazebo had a modern firepit in the middle and couches on all four sides.
Cherri led the way up the stairs, and I took a seat while she turned on the fire pit, the fake coals glowing in a variety of different colors as the fire started to blaze up. She sat on the couch adjacent to me, kicked off her stiletto heels, and pulled her feet up to get a little more comfortable. Part of me wanted to go sit next to her and kick back, as well, but I figured the distance was okay for now, especially considering she did have a boyfriend.
“This is oddly nice and warm for the Loches,” I said.
She laughed. “Yeah. It’s actually my doing, technically. For my birthday my sophomore year, Nathan had Avery poke a little bit
