Winter Untold (Summer Unplugged) (4 page)

Chapter 6

I used to have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. But over the last few days, I’ve had a whole lot less love and a whole lot more hate for the addicting social network. Three more photos of my boyfriend have popped up on his page, Jace’s gorgeous face tagged by some attractive girl I don’t know and have never seen before. There are a few girls who occasionally post photos with Jace and it doesn’t bother me. Those girls are his cousins, his boss’s fifty-year-old wife, and Hana, the girl he works with who is dating his friend.

Everyone else makes me want to punch them in the face. After another ten minutes of going through the newly tagged photos on his Facebook, I sign out and close the computer window. I may not be in control of who posts on his page, but I am in control of how long I’ll let myself look at it.

Becca walks in my bedroom, starling me as I spin around in my computer chair.

“Dammit, Bayleigh. You were on Facebook again, weren’t you?”

“No…” I say in the world’s most guilty-sounding voice.

She puts her hands on her hips and gives me a Mom Look. “Yes you were. I told you to stop looking! Those girls are just excited that they met a famous person. That’s all there is to it.”

“I know,” I say, noticing the lumps of clothing in her arms. “What’s that?”

“It’s every piece of clothing from my closet that I look even remotely hot in,” she says, tossing the pile on top of my bed. “You’re going to help me pick out what to wear.”

“Oh right. The stupid party.” I say it mostly to myself because I’m only just now remembering that I had agreed to go with her to Jackson Harvey’s house party tonight. The week really goes by fast when you spend all your time with your head in your hands, thinking about your boyfriend. Jace and I talked a lot more than usual in the last three days. I think he knew I was pretty pissed off and wanted to make up for it as much as he could. As of now, he thinks our relationship is on par, happy as always.

I’m still not so sure. I love the boy with all my heart but I’m not happy with the idea of him having a job that requires partying as part of the job description. He did assure me that it’s only for a few months at most, but still.
A few months are forever in girl time.

Several outfit changes later, when Becca is as hot as she’s going to get
in a black V-neck tank top and short shorts despite it being cold outside, we get in her car to go to this stupid party. I’ve been missing Jace like crazy and he can only call me at night from a hotel phone, so even though the party will be stupid, at least I’ll get out of the house. Doing anything is better than sitting around missing him. Becca blasts the heater to warm us up, and I might
accidently
make a comment that she wouldn’t be so cold if she’d dress according to the season.

She turns the heater up even higher.
“You are no fun anymore. We used to get hot and go to parties together. Now you look like an old housewife.”

I furrow my brows and glance down at my outfit. Skinny jeans with black flats and a long sleeve shimmery shirt.
There’s nothing old about it—it just doesn’t allude much sex appeal and that would make the old me very upset. The new me doesn’t really care though. “I’m only here for you, Becca. Not for anyone else.”

“You could at least look sexy for me,” she mutters under her breath.
“Wingmen are supposed to be slightly less hot than the person they’re wing manning for.”

“
Wing
woman
, thank you very much.” The car slows to a stop and I realize we’ve arrived at the party much sooner than I expected. A knot forms in my stomach. Do I even remember how to act at a party anymore? It’s not like things used to be, back when I was single and came to these things hoping to meet a hot guy and get a phone number or two. And it’s definitely not the same as when I go to a party with Jace and get to hold his hand all night, snuggling up against him as the hordes of people stop by to talk with my semi-famous boyfriend.

Now I’m just me—not single and not currently with my boyfriend. Playing wing woman for my best friend who wants to hook up with a guy who doesn’t like her. I can do this.

It shouldn’t be too hard at all.

Becca leaves the engine running and turns to face me, grabbing my cold hands in her warm ones. “Okay, here’s the thing. I might have to tell a few…white lies…tonight. You know, just to make myself look more interesting. As my best friend, I trust that you’ll just go along with them and not say anything that would embarrass me. Okay?”

I nod. I know all too well what I’ve put Becca through in the past—lying about our age to college guys, lying about my curfew, lying about why I didn’t have a cell phone—the list could go on forever. Now that the tables are turned, I’m more than happy to do what it takes to make sure all the attention is on her tonight.

“Thanks,” Becca says with a smile. “I talked to Chase like four times at school this week so I’m hoping he comes up to talk to me tonight.”

My eyes roll around my head in an accidental slip of self-control. I can’t help but roll my eyes, and I really wish I could, because Becca gives me a death glare. “Why are you rolling your eyes?”

“I just don’t want you to get your hopes up about Chase when he told me very clearly that he doesn’t want a girlfriend.”

“Right,” she says with a roll of her eyes this time. “That hasn’t stopped us before, and it won’t stop us now.”

The party isn’t so bad. Usually these things have too many people packed in too small of a house, music blasting so loud you can’t hear anything, and very very high chances of getting beer spilled all over your clothes. Harvey’s party is the complete opposite of that. His parents’ house is a massive two-story McMansion that sits on several acres with a pool in the back yard and a covered patio that’s probably bigger than the whole first floor of my house.

The music is kept at a reasonable volume, and I make it all the way from the kitchen, where I grab a Coke instead of a beer, to the back patio without a single person spilling anything on me. 
Becca asks me to crack open the pull tab on her beer so she doesn’t ruin her manicured nails.

We stand near a
n unoccupied foosball table and I set my drink on it as I open her beer for her. “How many do you think I could drink and still regain my dignity?” she asks as she checks the label on the back of the can. Her face glows pink from the neon bar signs on the walls.

“I don’t think the label is going to tell you that,” I say, which earns me the stink eye from Becca. “I can usually drink three before I become a total lunatic.”

She shrugs. “Three it is. I need to chug this before we run into you-know-who.”

“Voldemort?” The male voice is unexpected; Becca and I both jump as Chase walks up from the other side of the foosball table. Chase takes a sip from his drink—also a Coke—and smiles. “I wasn’t aware that you-know-who was invited tonight.”

Becca bursts into girlish giggles as if she were drunk already. Looks like she got her wish of Chase coming up to talk to her. Unfortunately, he’s looking at me.

“When girls say ‘you-know-who’ they aren’t talking about Harry Potter,” I say. “They’re talking about a guy.”

“Oh really?” Chase asks enthusiastically.

Becca gives me a quizzical look, probably wondering if I’m about to rat out her secret. I just shrug. “Duh.”

Chase looks at Becca now and she takes a long sip from her beer. “Well, good luck. I hope you-know-who shows up and sweeps you off your feet. Or, you know, whatever girls want guys to do.”

“I don’t need luck,” Becca says with a sudden burst of confidence. “Want to play foosball?”

Chase obliges and I lean against the wall nearest them, finishing my Coke and getting another. Staying sober at a party where nearly everyone else is drinking is a new experience for me. For one, everyone isn’t as hilarious as they seem when you’re drunk. Mostly everyone just looks like an idiot.

Chase beats Becca for the third time at the game of foosball, but she isn’t the least bit upset about it. She calls for a rematch, again, and starts in on her forth beer. Looks like I’ll be driving us home tonight.

My phone rings around nine p.m. and I almost miss the sound of Jace’s ringtone over the music thumping from the surround sound speakers on the patio. I pull my phone out of my back pocket and realize that I did miss his call—three times.

“Hello?” I answer, knowing I won’t be able to hear him over the loud party noise. The decibel level seems to be a lot higher than when we first arrived. “Hold on a sec, I need to get somewhere quiet.”

I push my way around groups of people and into a spare bedroom so I can get some privacy. Unlike in the movies, there’s no one making out in here. “Jace?” I say into my cell phone, now that I can hear him.

“Hey, sweetheart.” His voice sends a warm shiver down my spine. Oh how I’ve missed his deep voice and his sexy body and his warm, strong hands.

“I miss you,” I find myself saying instead of hello.

“I miss you more,” he says.

“Impossible!” I laugh. “You’re traveling around having all your meals paid for…I’m stuck here in Texas. You can’t possibly miss me more than I miss you.”

“I don’t know about that… it sounded like you were having some fun yourself just now.”

“Ugh, if you only knew. I’m at this stupid party with Becca and she’s drunk so I get to be her babysitter and watch her try to make out with a guy who has no interest in her.”

Jace laughs. “That sounds like Becca.”

We talk some more about the party and it amazes me how he doesn’t once say anything that would hint to him being jealous that I’m at a party without him. Every other guy I’ve known would get really pissed if I went to a party alone, but not Jace. He really is freaking amazing. I don’t deserve him one bit.

We talk for half an hour and Jace catches me up on the meetings he had today with his new employers. They’re offering him a lot of money to stay on board and continue doing training and promo activities for him, with the promise that he will be able to race for them in the future. He’s super excited about it and I am too, if only for him.

“You’re a little quiet,” he says after a while.

“I’m just thinking,” I say, leaning my back against the wall in someone else’s house. “I’m so happy for you but I’m going to miss you a lot.”

“It won’t be like this forever,” he says. “I promise. Oh! Crap, I almost forgot to tell you.” His voice gets really excited and my heart skips a beat as I wait to hear what he has to say. “I think there’s a ninety percent chance that I’ll make it down there for the Winter Festival.”

“Really?” I practically break my cell phone with how hard I squeeze it. “I’m so excited!”

“It’s not officially official, but it’s mostly official.”

“OhmygodIloveyousomuch.”

Jace laughs. “I love you more.”

I
hang up the phone feeling as though I’m floating on cloud nine. When I open the door to the empty bedroom and step into the hallway, someone whooshes past me, making me press back into the wall.

“There you are.”

I glance around, thinking surely he’s talking to someone else. Why would Chase be wondering where I am? He pokes me in the shoulder with his index finger. “I’ve looked everywhere for you.”

The beer on his breath hits me now. Guess he stopped drinking Cokes a while ago. I put on a fake smile. “I was in the last place you looked. What’s up? Where’s Becca?”

He shrugs and flashes me a smile. “She’s making out with some guy. I don’t care though. I want to see you.”

Alarms go off in mind. This is not good. “I need to find Becca,” I hear myself saying.
Something flashes in Chase’s eyes now, a look of recognition as if he suddenly sobered up enough to realize that he’s been hovering in my personal space, making flirty eyes with me. He blinks, and the look is gone. Replaced with a drunken smile again.

“So,” he says, poking me in the shoulder again as he takes a step closer to me. We’re only inches apart now, close enough for me to nuzzle against his chest if I wanted to. I definitely don’t want to. “I think you’re cute.”

“Um, thanks,” I say, still trying to keep my smile, still trying to stay nice for the sake of not making things weird.

“We should hang out.”

Becca bursts into the hallway now, her hair all disheveled. She looks positively pissed off. “Bayleigh!” she yells, looking into the living room and then back down the hall, where our eyes meet. “We need to get out of here,” she says, stomping down the hallway and grabbing my arm without even glancing at Chase. “Now.”

Chapter 7

It’s funny how when life gets crazy, the normal mundane things keep going as if nothing happened. Like school on Monday morning. Becca drives me to school, not saying a word about last Friday where she drunkenly made out with some guy only to have her ex-boyfriend stumble onto the scene and punch the poor guy in the face.

In first period yearbook class, Chase walks in just before the bell rings and slides into his chair which is next to mine. He gives me the same nod hello like he does every day, and doesn’t mention or even hint to whatever weirdness happened between us last Friday. Everything goes on normally, as if last Friday didn’t happen. As if I am the only person who remembers it.

So, despite the craziness, everything is basically normal. Except that when lunch comes and goes, I still haven’t gotten any texts from Jace…but I guess that’s normal now, too. I hardly ever hear from him anymore.

I’m checking my cell phone for messages as I walk down the long hallway that leads to the parking lot after school. As expected, there’s nothing from my boyfriend.

Someone taps me on the shoulder and I glance over to see Chase giving me a sheepish grin and he falls into step with me. “Hey.”

“Hello,” I say, turning back to my cell phone.

“Look, I’m sorry about last Friday. I was drunk and an idiot. I don’t even remember what I said.”

“Then why are you apologizing?” I ask, lifting an eyebrow. I hoped he had forgotten about calling me cute, but he’s probably just pretending he did.

“Because the only thing I do remember is the look you gave me in the hallway.”

“What kind of look was that?”

“He stares at the ground as he walks. “A look like I’m a fucking asshole. So I want to apologize.”

“Ah,” I say as the moments of silence grow increasingly awkward. “Well, thanks.”

“Winter Festival in one week,” he says, hooking his thumbs around his backpack straps. “I think we should go together since you know all about it and I’m still the weirdo out-of-place new guy. I can drive us.”

I want to tell him that I can’t ride with him because I’ll be with my boyfriend. But I can’t say the words because then I’d end up jinxing myself and Jace won’t be able to make it. Or worse, he’ll call and break up with me and then I won’t even have a boyfriend for the festival. Luckily, I don’t have to say anything at all because Becca smashes into my other shoulder one second later.

“Looks like I don’t have to take your ass home today,” she says, giving me a silly eyebrow wiggle.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask right as I look up at the parking lot, toward the second row where Becca’s car is parked. “Oh, my god…” I murmur as the world’s biggest, goofiest grin spreads across my face.
I think Becca says something but I don’t notice whatever it is. All I can focus on is my boyfriend’s big ass truck, parked directly behind her car, and my boyfriend, looking handsome as hell in dark jeans and a black leather jacket, staring straight at me.

I break into a sprint and cross the parking lot, leaving Chase and Becca in my wake. Jace gives me his silly smirk, trying to play it cool when I know he’s just as excited as I am. He opens his arms and I dive into them, wrapping my hands tightly around his neck as I feel my feet lift off the ground.

His breath is warm against my neck, a huge contrast to the cold air outside. “I missed you, baby,” he says. Chills run down my neck and prickle across my spine.

“I missed you too,” I say, or rather,
try
to say. My words are cut off by his kiss—his lips are warm and smell slightly of minty lip balm.

“You two have fun,” Becca calls out sarcastically as she taps her foot while waiting at her car door. She can’t move until Jace drives his truck out of her way.

“Oh we will,” Jace calls back, opening the passenger door for me.

I turn to wave goodbye to Becca, but see Chase instead. “See ya,” he says with a
small smile, but he isn’t fooling me. He had no idea I had a boyfriend.

And I’m an idiot for not realizing that until now.