I pulled out a sucker, ripped the plastic off, and shoved it into my mouth. Something to distract myself.

“Yeah, still a bunch of douches trying to get laid, and a DJ with a boner for dubstep.” We were so close to him too. Only a few feet away, spinning on a dais in the middle of the grotto.

Lottie laughed. “I mean it’s pretty. The water is beautiful and the view…” She looked out over the cliff to the view of the twinkling ocean.

Girls swam in the grotto, wearing mermaid fins and nothing else. Occasionally someone dove off the stages, splashing us. I swiped my forehead.

Fuck.

I hated this place.

“Do you remember the first time we came here?” Lottie asked. “I was fifteen, you were sixteen. Geoff and Alaric were high on coke or something.”

“Sounds about right,” I said, trying not to roll my eyes.

She played with the fabric of her dress, working the sheer black material between her fingers.

“Someone spilled their cocktail all over my white dress,” she said. “You gave me your shirt and told me not to tell anyone.”

My brows drew. “You remember that?”

“I remember everything about you.” She lifted her head, and our eyes locked. “I can’t stop thinking about our kiss…I’ve been looking at your orchid every night.”

“The one next to your bed?” I arched a brow, throwing her a half smile. She didn’t return my joke. She looked up at me through her thick, dark lashes.

“Yes.”

Fuck.

I reached into my pocket for a blunt—I needed more than a fucking lollipop to distract myself. I lit it and inhaled, trying to get my fucking mind focused on the beautiful girl beside me.

“I have a present,” she said suddenly.

I leaned back on my elbows as she reached into a glittery purse, pulling out a green pen. It wasn’t anything fancy, not some Montblanc or S.T. Dupont bullshit. It looked like something you’d get at a gas station.

She handed it to me.

“I meant to give it to you a while ago, but things kept getting in the way.”

“Why did you get this for me?”

Lottie blinked, looking like a kid with their hand in the cookie jar. “Don’t you like it?”

“Yeah, babe, just wondering how that mind works.”

She blushed, which should’ve driven me wild. Instead I looked for Snitch. She was still settled against the wall, looking bored.

Lottie doesn’t deserve this. Doesn’t deserve someone like me, whose heart is halved.

Why the fuck did Snitch have to be the one I grabbed? Why wasn’t Lottie in that fucking room?

Some dildo movie star wandered up to Snitch. My eyes sharpened on him. That guy had a reputation for taking pictures of girls who were too “sleepy” to know better.

“I don’t know,” Lottie said. “I just had a feeling.”