“Really?” My pulse picked up and I felt my eyebrows shooting toward my hairline. We hadn’t been to a beach party before. They’d been something that Noah would disappear to one or two nights, but Lee and I had always been too young. June and Matthew (and my dad, via phone call) hadn’t let us go when Noah was going. And Noah hadn’t wanted us there.

There was that one year, when we were fourteen: we’d snuck down to a party even after my dad and Lee’s parents had told us we weren’t allowed to go. Mostly, though, we snuck down to spy on Noah. It hadn’t been very successful, though. He’d caught us trailing after him and threatened to phone his mom and tell on us.

Childish, but it worked.

We probably would’ve been allowed to go last year, maybe even the year before, but we’d never asked. The parties were Noah’s thing. Lee and I stayed at the house playing video games and joking about, like we always did.

Now, though, adrenaline coursed through me.

“Really?” I squealed. “We get to go to a beach party this year? We’re going to a party—”

“Um,” Noah interrupted. “I don’t think so.”

“What?” Lee and I both turned to him, wide-eyed with pure confusion.

“Do you even know what goes on at those things?” he said. I pursed my lips, glaring at him. If he was going to turn right back into an overprotective jerk…

“We’re going,” I told him.

“Elle.” He sighed, with a look on his face that I completely ignored.

“No, she’s right,” Lee added. “I’m going. And Shelly can’t not go if I go. Therefore, we are both going.” I was so tempted to make a comment like “Therefore”? Wow, that’s a pretty big word for you, Lee, but I was too interested in what he had to say. “Besides, you can’t keep track of where she’s going and what she’s doing every single day.”

“Well, the beauty of Instagram means I kind of can,” Noah joked. “But I’m serious. You guys have never been to one of these parties. They can get really crazy. There’s alcohol, douchey guys….Things can get pretty wild. I swear I saw drugs getting passed around last year. And I’m not talking about weed.”

“Oh, come on.” Lee snorted. “As if we’re going to get involved in anything like that.”

“Some of those parties get out of control real quick, Lee. I can handle myself. I’m not so sure about you guys.”

“We’re not idiots, Noah.”

“You don’t even know the guys who invited you.”

“Sure I do. I added one of them on Facebook.”