Chapter 11: and I Need You Like a Heart Needs a Beat

The next night, the girls gathered at my house.

Nick lived a few blocks away, and we decided that my house was the best place to crash. We were meeting the guys there.

"Hey guys, is Luke going tonight?" I asked them as I brushed out my hair.

Hillary was online, Claudia was doing her makeup, and Rachel and Amanda were content with Diet Cokes and Cosmopolitan on my bed.

"No idea, why?" Rachel looked up from the page on mascara's.

"Just wondering ... I want to have a good time tonight. I don't want to have to deal with him."

They nodded.

Claudia came into my bedroom, and got her outfit out of her bag. It was nine.

"I'm going to get dressed. Anyone else?"

I nodded, "Sure. Let's leave at like nine forty five, okay?"

"Sounds good."

We all knew to be fashionably late. That was "the Rule" for parties such as these.

My cell phone vibrated. It was sitting in its charger on top of my desk.

Hillary took it out of the charger, and glanced at the front screen. It was a flip phone.

"Text message," she said, squealing.

We all laughed.

"Ooo ... Who's it from?" I said, laughing.

"Read it!" Rachel yelped, laughing along with us.

She flipped it open. She froze. I had one of those Motorolla RAZR flip phones, the really hot ones that everyone seems to have nowadays. She clicked the "ok" button. Her face fell.

"What?" Amanda asked.

She shook her head, and snapped it shut.

"What?" Claudia asked, zipping up her skirt.

"Who's it from?" Rachel asked.

I got up, and went over, taking the phone from her.

I flipped it open, and quickly opened my Inbox and the text message. It was from Luke. "I love you. It was a mistake, I'm sorry."

They all stopped laughing. I sighed, and shrugged my shoulders. "It's just like all the others I got. The Inbox is full of them, take a look."

I tossed the phone onto my bed, and went into my walk-in closet to find an outfit. I had thought I knew what I was wearing, but suddenly I changed my mind.

Four cans of Diet Coke and a half hour later, we had turned to "Luke Bashing" as we got ready.

"Remember that time when you guys first started going out that he took you to Salsa?" Hillary threw in one of those ridiculously weird memories of him.

We all laughed. Salsa was the most ridiculous restaurant in town. It was like going clubbing in Mexico: restaurant and club. Weird combination.

"What about that time when we were hooking up and I got that chocolate milkshake all down my Sanctuary dress?"

We all knew that one. The whole gang had gone out for dinner at one of those roller-skate old fashioned type of places. And hooked up. And spilled chocolate milkshake down my favorite dress. The stains never really came out.

"Wait, and then on top of it, the ketchup incident?" Amanda added, laughing at herself.

Before the milkshake, she had been shaking a bottle of ketchup to put some on her fries. Little did she know that the lid was not screwed on, simply resting on top. Needless to say, the ketchup stains didn't come out either.

The conversation quickly jumped from "Luke Bashing" to us swapping great, and moderately embarrassing, stories of the past.

"Guys, you know what I've realized?" Claudia asked, doing her eyeliner.

"What?" I asked, still laughing at the memory of the beautiful dress gone food.

"It's always been us five. I mean, since the beginning of middle school, it's been us. And we've been there for everyone's stories. Like we all know about Salsa, the milkshake, the cotton candy, the roller coaster, Andrew's fake tattoo..." Cotton candy and roller coaster came from a great day at an amusement park. Max got his head practically covered in cotton candy, and Paul and Rachel dared to go on the biggest roller coaster there ... needless to say they threw up. Andrew had gotten a fake tattoo of these huge lips on his arm that had taken three months to come off.

"She's right you know," Amanda slipped on her shoes. "We've been there for each other every step of the way."

We laughed together, and got a group hug.

Rachel brought up Luke, "And we will be here with you for this whole Luke thing."

"Of course. It's going to pass soon..." Hillary added.

I didn't look excited.

"But in the mean time ... have fun with this Nick guy. He's really hot!"

We all had to laugh at that one. Amanda always thought about the guys, and their level of hotness.

At nine forty five, we were ready. Made, dried, dressed, and ready to party all night long.

We took the Solara, the convertible again. Rachel and Amanda, and then Hillary and Claudia, had split cars to come over to my house, but we were taking mine for this.

We said bye to my parents, and then sped off for the night of a lifetime.

We pulled up in front of Nick' house to find the party just getting crazy. We rang the bell, and entered to find the guys waiting for us. They all looked good, Luke included. I ignored him the best I could. We kissed and hugged everyone, and then headed in.

I was dancing away on the dance floor with Amanda, when someone came up behind me and started grinding with me.

Turning slightly, I found him. And not the "him" I've been referring to as "him" throughout the whole book. But a different him. A better him.

Nick Davis. The hottest soon-to-be-senior in town.

"Hey," I said, turning and facing him for some frontal grinding.

"You made it," he said, stopping the dancing, and taking my hand.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," I gave him a flirtatious grin.

We chatted, I reintroduced him to the guys, minus Luke of course, he was sitting on a couch staring at me. I had happened to glance over at him, and Nick followed my line of vision.

"Oh..." he said.

"No oh," I said, half laughing. "He's being a sketch. Stalking me."

Nick nodded, pretending to be serious. We laughed.

"But seriously, is he bothering you?"

I half nodded, "Just a bit." I gave him a flirty grin.

"I'll take care of that," he wrapped his arm around my waist, and kissed me.

I had to laugh as I slipped my arms around his neck. We swapped saliva for a couple of minutes before Kyle whistled.

"God you two, get yourselves a room!" he hooted.

We all laughed, but did. Kind of.

We headed outside, towards the pool. There were a few people out there, most hadn't realized it was there yet.