I shift my head and my hair slides out of her hands. “Are you drunk?”

“No. But my friends took so long to get here, and I was all awkward and alone. So I joined in on some drinking games.”

“Where’s everyone else?” I ask her, looking around the crowd for our friends.

She waves her hand noncommittally. “Here somewhere. They said something about hot college girls and took off.”

A group of guys walk by us, the one in the lead winking at Charlotte as he passes, leaving her blushing and biting back a smile. When he’s out of sight, she turns back to me and exclaims, “Oh my god, did you see that?”

“The one who totally just checked you out? Yes!” I exclaim.

This is what I’ve been missing. Just being at a party, having fun, talking about boys with one of my best friends.

Aiden dips his head near ours. “I’m going to find the guys. Don’t get into too much trouble.” He drops a kiss on my head and turns to get lost in the crowd.

“Okay, so that guy is one of Jake’s best friends.” She grabs my arm and leads me to the living room slash dance floor.

We spot him near the wall at the far end of the room, talking to some other people.

“His name is Marcus,” she continues. “Isn’t he so hot? Jake gets mad at me when I say it, but it’s not my fault he’s friends with hot guys.”

Marcus is a good-looking guy, with broad shoulders, dark skin, stubble covering his jaw, and what seems like an outgoing confidence and an easy smile.

“Why don’t you go over there and talk to him?” I ask as Aiden comes back to us. “Did you find them?”

“Yeah, they were . . . preoccupied.”

I fake gag and laugh with him, not asking for any more details since I can already guess what’s keeping the guys “preoccupied.”

Charlotte looks at us, then at Marcus, then down at the drink in her hand. “You know what, I think I will.”

She downs the rest of her drink and hands me the empty cup before making her way through the dancing bodies and over to the group of people Marcus is talking to.

A Siren of the Heart song comes on that I like, and I automatically move my hips a little to the rhythm.

Aiden notices. “Dance with me.”

I’m taken aback a bit. For some reason I can’t picture Aiden dancing.

“Really? You want to dance?”

He grins, and I set Charlotte’s empty cup on a table as he pulls me onto the makeshift dance floor. He tugs me closer to him, and together we move to the music, laughing and singing along to the songs that come on. My heart soars. I’m having so much fun that I forget I’m not Amelia. It’s just me and Aiden having fun at a party like anyone else our age.