JENNIE

“,” I said.

“Who was that?” Donghyuk asked. “I didn’t get a good look at her.”

“That was ing Lisa,” I said, surprised that I was cursing, but this seemed like a good time to curse if there ever was one.

“Oh. . I’m so sorry Jennie,” he said.

“Don’t be,” I said. “There was no way we could’ve known she’d be lurking out there. She’s never come to one of these parties before in her life. I don’t know what she was doing out here.”

“Really?” Donghyuk asked, his tone saying it all. “You really don’t know what she was doing out here?”

I sighed. Yeah, I guess I knew what she was doing out here. It was obvious enough. Still, it was a surprise. Other than hanging out with her band friends Lisa had never had much of a social life outside of hanging out with me.

Why did she have to pick tonight of all nights to branch out and start looking for me? Why did she have to pick tonight of all nights to sneak up on me when I was locking lips with Donghyuk?

A lip lock I didn’t enjoy at all, thank you very much, but there was no way to tell her that because she bolted the moment she saw us.

Damn it. Why did life have to be so complicated?

I started around the house. I heard Donghyuk coming up behind me. I felt good knowing he was there to back me up.

There would never be romance there, that was for damn sure, but it was nice to know he had my back. It was like I had a new partner in crime. Sharing our secrets had created an unspoken bond and we were friends now even if we hadn’t been friends when the night started.

I rounded the pool house and searched the crowd. It was difficult to see much of anything. There were so many people out there hooting and hollering and carrying on.

It was like watching a nature documentary or something. Only instead of monkeys swinging through the trees it was a bunch of drunk high schoolers walking around with red Solo cups having a good time.

I hated it. I hated that I’d come here tonight. I hated that Lisa had been hurt by something I did here.

I needed to fix it.

“Where would she park?” I asked.

“Probably out on the road,” Donghyuk said. “The old corn corridor is where most people park. My parents hate it when people park in the lawn and ruin it. That’s the only thing that’ll cause my dad to come out and shoo people away.”

I looked around again. That seemed supremely irresponsible of them considering all the illegal things that were going down in their back yard, but now wasn’t the time to worry about Donghyuk’s parents or their questionable parenting strategies.

Now was the time to worry about Lisa. I needed to catch her before she got away.

The only problem with that plan was I hadn’t taken more than a couple of steps before Joy was there in front of me preventing me from getting out to the cornfield corridor, and she looked pissed off.

“Whatever it is I don’t have time for it Joy,” I said.

I figured it had to be some bit of juicy gossip that had her pissed off. It was always some piece of juicy gossip that had her pissed off, and usually it turned out not to be true so what was the point in listening in the first place?

“No way,” Joy said. “You’re staying right here and talking to me.”

“No, I’m not,” I said. “I really need to go. Get out of my way.”

“No,” she said. “We’re talking about that friend of yours and we’re talking about her right now.”

That brought me up short. We were talking about that friend of mine? There was only one friend I could think of that she could be talking about, but it was impossible. How could she even know Lisa was here, let alone have a reason to be pissed off at her?

Unless they’d met when Lisa was on her way out. She had to be pissed off after seeing me kissing Donghyuk.

Damn it. Had she been so upset that she went and did something stupid?

That wasn’t like Lisa though. Usually when she was upset about something she shut down. I had to draw her out. Really work to get her to talk.

Confronting someone like Joy was the last thing she’d do. Especially considering everything I’d told her about Joy over the years. Considering all the time they’d spent together in tennis.