I got lost in Anthony’s eyes again, and by the time I turned back to her, she’d walked off. “Hey, where are you go …?” I called to her, but stopped, seeing her and Baby Charms disappear into Parker Walsh’s blue Mazda. Before I could even worry about it, Anthony pulled me into another drenching kiss. The force of him coming toward me sent us back, back, back. The cold steel of a parked car stopped me as Anthony kept coming, filling every gap of air between us.

Sliding my palms inside the back of his shirt, I pulled him even closer, because there was no close enough … no fast enough … no enough enough.

Like a roller coaster ride slamming to an end, Anthony dropped his forehead against mine. “I’m, sorry,” he said while trying to catch his breath. “I’m … uh … I didn’t mean to just attack you like that.”

I swallowed. “That’s okay. I like aggressive guys.”

His eyes locked with mine, and he took my hand, lacing our fingers together. “Let’s get out of here.”

Under my breath, I whispered, “Best five words a guy can say to me.”

When I awoke in my bedroom, I smelled of Anthony—Axe, male sweat, and something else … oh yes, golf course grass. Embarrassing memories exploded around me, but I soldiered on past the oh-shit-what-happened stage of post-public-macking stress syndrome. No, we didn’t have sex. I don’t want to talk about that.

I was too depressed, seeing as how I’d just done the whole drunken-slut-girl routine with a guy I really liked. And I was sure whatever magic had possessed me at last night’s kegger was lost and Anthony was probably already regretting it and planning to avoid me until he graduates.

His watch was still wrapped around my wrist. And I wanted so much to keep it. So much so, I left it on while I showered, holding it carefully out of water. But while I showered, it wasn’t Anthony I was thinking about. It was Mom.

Steam had coated the bathroom before I even crawled under the hot spray. Guess that faux midnight bath hadn’t gotten her clean.

I was torn with feeling excited by the notion that she might’ve been secretly meeting my father and upset knowing it was more than likely just some loser guy.

I did a double brush on the teeth, rinsed and repeated, and almost passed out before I made it back to my bedroom. I opened my window to its fullest to clear the stench of drunk-girl. A jackhammer-like noise pounded my brain and I turned to see my cell phone buzzing across my end table. I grabbed it up and through my blurry eyes read the message:

Meet b4 school? ;-) A.