frat parties and the bars.
She was looking for me in all of the bad girl places that I would have once upon attended.
That being the case, I wouldn’t have seen her at all. I had done such a good job of reforming myself that I didn’t even get invited to parties anymore. Unless someone needed help studying for a test or something else academic, I was deliberately excluded from the party phone tree.
But there were exceptions.
I occasionally was at a frat house. The twins lived in one and even though things had been strained between me and Mason after the whole accusing Logan of being a dangerous prick, I still went over there to hang out. He’d invited me to his little get together with friends that weekend, and I didn’t turn him down. And just because the twins were decent human beings, that didn’t mean that their brothers were, too. The result was a bunch of rowdy guys playing drinking games while we hung out in the living room.
And that’s where I saw Miranda first.
I walked by myself to the twins’ frat house. Kass was coming, too, but she’d gotten held up by James. Things were getting pretty serious between the two of them and the result was me seeing less and less of her. Right now that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. If she wasn’t around too much there was less chance that she wouldn’t catch on to what was really going on.
The downside was that I just missed her. Kass had become a pretty important part of my life lately. I shoved my hands into my pockets, shrugging my shoulders to push my scarf and collar higher up on my neck to keep warm. Kass being so important to me… well, it made me feel a little funny.
Was that betraying Beck by finding someone else to take her place? In my heart, that’s what it felt like.
The frat house came into view and I went quickly up the steps. The lights were on and I could hear voices inside letting me know that other people had already arrived. I lifted my hand and knocked, waiting in the cold for only a little bit before the door opened.
Mason stood on the other side, grinning when he saw me. “Hey. You made it.” He opened the door further, stepping aside so that I could come inside.
I smiled and nodded, heading into the warmth of the hall. “Sure did. Am I late?”
Mason shook his head, closing the door behind me. “Nah. Mark hasn’t even shown up yet and Danny’s still arguing over movies. I keep telling her that Don’t Die Again is a terrible movie, but she’s adamant about it.”
I laugh. Danny’s been obsessed with horror movies for as long as any of us have known her, and a lot longer than that. “Didn’t she pick last time?” I offered as a means of getting out of another horror movie disaster.
Thinking it over, he smiled slyly and nodded. “You know what? You’re right. She definitely doesn’t get to pick again .”
As it turned out, she did get to pick again. Mason wanted some action movie with lots of guns and sex, while I wanted a documentary on the Amazon Rainforest. The result was letting Danny pick because we could at least all enjoy it—even if it was only through enjoying hating it.
Mason was in the kitchen making popcorn when the next knock on the door came. I looked at Danny who waved at me to go ahead and get it. We were expecting people and we were close enough to the twins that no one was going to say boo about it if I answered the door.
I did and it was Kass on the other side. She had that glow on her face that she always got after spending time with James.
I rolled my eyes at her. “Have a good time?” I asked, smiling a little.
She nodded her head, coming inside. I closed the door behind her and we walked to the living room. “Oh, he’s so great, Addy,” she gushed. There would have been stars and hearts in her eyes if she were a cartoon character. “We just curled up on the couch and talked for hours. About nothing! And everything.”
Shaking my head, I laughed at her. “Sounds…