“To us,” I said. We knocked our plastic cups together and drank, but I noticed that Haley and Tasha avoided looking at each other.

—

The party officially started at eight o’clock, but it didn’t really fill up till almost nine. A lot of people came, spreading out over the backyard and going in and out of the basement, although “basement” was a misnomer. It was an entire floor dedicated to entertainment that opened directly onto a lower patio. There was a kitchenette with a wet bar stocked with prosecco and the sneaked-in booze, a home theater with velvet seats where music videos played on a big screen, a game room with Ping-Pong and foosball tables for increasingly drunken gaming, and a lounge area with squishy sectionals for conversations that would lead to hookups.

By the time Jacob noticed me, I was pretty drunk. I left Tasha and Haley dancing in the home theater while I went to get some water. As I was digging in the fridge, Jacob asked me to grab a bottle for him, too, and then we had to edge around the crowd in the kitchenette, and we ended up trapped in a corner of the lounge watching one of Jacob’s teammates attempt to down way too much beer way too fast.

Jacob leaned over and said in my ear, “I always wanted to kiss you.”

I almost wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly, but the sensation of his breath on my ear was unmistakable. A shiver went through me involuntarily.

I could have said You’re lying, you’ve never thought about me before this minute. I could have said That’s a terrible line. I turned toward him, intending to give him a withering look, but the expression on his face stopped me. A small grin on his mouth, a sparkle in his eye, all mischief.

“You’re always so mysterious, Aria West,” he said.

“I’m not mysterious,” I said, but I felt flattered. I wanted to be mysterious.

“I’ve known you since, what, sixth grade? How come we’ve never hooked up?”

I thought I should be offended by his question, but the feeling of flattery only seemed to intensify. In the lounge, they were chanting for his lacrosse buddy to drink faster. Strains of “Blurred Lines” floated out from the home theater. I didn’t say anything in response, which only made Jacob lean close to me again, his mouth practically on my neck as he whispered, “We don’t have to talk if you don’t want.”