by Casey Diam
“Dude, where’s yours? You bought one the same time I did,” I said.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Averie sighed. “Fine, blondie. Gold it is.”
My eyes widened at the sight of the next person in line. “Gabby? What are you doing here?”
“I got an invitation,” Gabriella replied.
“I thought you were in Park City this weekend.”
“I didn’t realize you were keeping track of my whereabouts, and I was, but what day is it today?” she asked casually, as if she didn’t know what day in the week it was.
I placed a red band around her wrist, careful not to let our skin touch. “Wednesday.”
“So, not the weekend anymore, is it?” she quipped.
Our eyes held a moment before Jax, Gabby’s douchebag boyfriend, stepped up beside her. I should just punch him in the face, except he wasn’t a douchebag, at least not from what I could tell, but that didn’t lessen the urge.
“I guess not,” I responded.
I didn’t know what had happened between Gabby and me. We were once good friends, but then, overnight, it was as if she couldn’t stand me. And it was just me. I realized this over two years ago.
At first, I thought she didn’t want to hang out with her older brothers and their friends anymore, but nope, she just didn’t want to hang out with me and always mysteriously disappeared whenever I was around.
So, it was strange that she would show up at a party I was hosting.
As she went inside, a bouncer took the iPad from Ash to check off the late-comers.
Time to get this party started.
While Ash and Averie got photographed, I headed toward the storage room in the back of the bar, which was where my friends and I usually snuck drinks, but before I could get there, I glimpsed Brody talking to two girls from Alpen Springs High.
When he saw me, he jerked his head and pointed a finger to the roof, signaling for me to meet him up there instead.
Knowing I would need my coat, I went back to the front and as I waited on the guy behind the counter, I caught a glimpse of Gabby in my periphery.
My gaze traveled down the length of her body, stopping at the hem of the black mini dress hugging her tanned thighs, toned by all the gnarly shit she was capable of doing on a snowboard.
When had she started to dress like this?
As a burst of laughter erupted from her plum-colored lips, her wavy black hair swung around her face.
My eyes shifted to the person responsible for her happiness, and I swallowed, my teeth grinding. A semicircle of four guys was laughing along with her, their attention on her face because she might have a knockout body and mad skills on the slopes, but it was her laugh, her beauty, the warmth radiating from her that drew everyone in even though she didn’t know it. I’d always tried not to notice, treated her like one of the boys, but as we grew older, it became harder to do.
She placed a hand on one of the guy’s shoulders, and I could practically see him drool before her boyfriend swooped in, sliding an arm around her tiny waist.
“Where are you going?” Averie asked, distracting me from the urge to punch something, anything, but preferably something that started with a J.
I glanced at her and Ash as I shrugged on my coat. “Stepping out for a minute. I’ll be back.”
“We’re supposed to be on stage in ten minutes.”
“I know—”
“Ryker, I swear if you—”
“Calm down, A. Mozey. I’ll be there.”
I let myself through the roped-off staircase and made my way up to the roof. A cold chill went straight to my bones as the door shut behind me. Shivering, I buttoned my coat and stuffed my hands into the pockets. Brody came up a minute later.
“Fuck, it’s cold.” He pulled a bottle of Jack from his jacket pocket and held it up. I grabbed it, unscrewed the top, and took a long pull. As I drew in a cold breath to quell the burn in my throat, Brody lifted his hand for the bottle.
He took a drink, his face scrunching as he sucked in a breath.
“I thought you were planning to enter the new year sober,” I reminded him.
He passed the bottle back, and I took a swig.
“I was,” he sighed. “My douche-zoid brother is in town. Showed up two hours ago.”
“Shit. How long’s he staying this time?”
Brody shrugged and shook his head. “Until Dad gives him what he wants.”
Tyler might be a few years older than Brody, but he still lived off his dad, so the only time he ever came back was when he needed money.
“Is he coming tonight?”
“You’re seriously asking that?” Brody took the bottle and chugged.
Chapter 4
Gabby
Jax’s hand slid down my hip toward my butt, and I stopped it, placing my hand over his.
“You look so sexy with that mask on,” he whispered.
We were standing in a low-lit area in a corner where he’d practically dragged me to a second ago.
“Behave.”
“I have been . . . for almost four months now, Gabs.”
I hated when he called me that. Only my brothers used that nickname, and even then, I protested.
“I know, but we talked about this,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, but it’s New Year’s Eve. I could get us a room tonight. I just don’t understand why we’re waiting.”
Right, because apparently, the fact that I wasn’t ready wasn’t a good enough reason for him.
My gaze shifted to Ryker, who was walking toward the stage where Brody’s dad stood with a mic in hand.
Ryker Stanley.
I had tried so hard to forget about him, but then I’d seen him and his brother all over the local news last month after their football team won the state championship. And as I’d stared at the sunset glow of his red hair, pink lips, and the dazzling gray of his eyes lighting up the screen, it had tossed me into a whirlwind of memories of me and my ex-best friend.
Bear, one of the servers working the party tonight, walked up to us with a tray of champagne flutes that were filled with light-pink liquid. It looked ridiculous in his hands, like a giant holding a saucer. The man was huge.
“That isn’t champagne,” I observed.
His eyes, little beads behind his mask, drifted to my red wristband. “You’re underage.”
“But it’s New Year’s, isn’t there some kind of exception?”
“Underage drinking is not permitted.”
“It’s a private party,” I enticed.
“In a public establishment.”
“Touché, Bear. Touché.”
“Non-alcoholic sparkling rosé?” Bear asked, being all professional as if I hadn’t seen him act crazy after my brothers got him drunk in my backyard not too long ago.
“Non-alcoholic sparkling rosé, it is.” I retrieved one of the glasses from the tray. “Thank you, Bear.” I guessed I wasn’t going to be ultra-fancy tonight while sipping champagne.
The music began to fade until Mr. Keller announced, “Thank you for coming out. You know, if someone had told me twenty years ago that two kids still in high school were going to come up with an idea not only to cater to a younger crowd but also to provide custom event packages suitable for any age group, I would have laughed. But you know what I would have also said? Averie, what did I say to you two when you pitched me your idea for Twisted Events?”
Averie lifted her own mic to her mouth as she walked toward the middle of the stage. “You said, ‘Why the hell didn’t I think like this when I was your age?’”
The crowd chuckled as I admired Averie’s curled, light-brown hair and the navy-blue shimmering halter dress that hugged her torso and fell loosely to her feet.
She and I’d had a few short conversations at Darlene’s Cafe, and I knew that her previous boyfriend died over a year ago and she was currently dating Ash, Ryker’s half-brother, but other than that, I didn’t know much more about
her.
Mr. Keller left the stage as Averie and Ryker took over. And Ryker? He looked different, more built. Definitely not the lanky thirteen-year-old boy I used to be friends with.
“So, our custom party packages will range from a cowboy themed party to a vampire themed party.” Ryker grinned. “Whatever your heart desires, we will work with you to give you exactly what you want. Or you could choose from our ongoing theme packages. The Bachelor Package.”
“The Bachelorette,” Averie added.
“The Birthday,” Ryker said.
“The Remedy,” Averie said.
“And last but not least,” Ryker continued, “is the party package you’ll be experiencing tonight—”
“The Masquerade,” the two said in unison, gesturing toward the crowd.
“And you need to be excited because in the entire city of Alpen Springs, you were selected for this, for tonight,” Averie added enticingly before she and Ryker said, “Welcome to the launch of Twisted Events.”
“And welcome to a night you’ll never forget,” Averie finished, flashing a flirty glance at the audience.
A few shouts and a light applause circulated the room until the lights began to dim.
It turned pitch black inside at the same time as the music increased in volume. A blue-and-white light lit up the sparkling silver curtains blocking the entrance that led downstairs, and as the long drapes pulled apart to reveal the staircase, a hand touched my ass a second before a very apparent erection pressed against my side.
“The things we could get away with in the dark. Even the universe is giving us the okay to be naughty,” Jax whispered.
Oh my God.
I shook my head. Seriously, could he go a second without thinking about sex?
The lights came back on and the crowd began to navigate downstairs.
“Come on.” Jax touched my lower back, and I squirmed inside.
“I’m just going to use the restroom, give me a minute,” I told him.
“Okay, you want me to hold your drink?”
“Uh, sure.”
A few women were in the bathroom, chatting and laughing.
I stood in the line, feeling a bit awkward.
Growing up as a young athlete who competed and trained all over the world, I didn’t really have people who I hung out with at places like these. I was dating Jax, but I barely spent time with him.
I lived in a snowboarding bubble and oftentimes felt uncomfortable in social gatherings that had nothing to do with sliding down a slope or discussing the sport itself.
Besides my immediate family, there had been one guy I could let my guard down with and just be myself without any worries that I was being judged or being weird. And that was Ryker.
Which made me ask myself what I was doing. Why was I even here?
Once I got inside a stall, I sighed.
“I can’t believe you did that! How are you going to dry it?” a girl asked just outside my stall.
“I don’t know. Damn it!” a more frustrated voice responded.
I continued to eavesdrop on the conversation as I peed before reaching for the toilet paper roll, which was totally empty.
“Drinking isn’t going to make it go away.” The longer I listened, the more I realized I knew this raspier voice. I’d just heard it on stage and in the coffee shop. It was Averie’s.
“But it’s helping,” the other girl replied.
“Uh,” I began quietly, not wanting to ask for help but not really having any other choice. “Excuse me? Can someone help me, please? There’s no toilet paper in here.”
Silence.
Gah, I must have sounded like an idiot.
I squeezed my eyes shut, my shoulders drooping. Heels clicked along the tile floor and into the stall next to mine.
“How much do you need?” Averie asked.
“Just, uh, not a lot.”
“Got it.”
A hand appeared beneath the stall with a thick coil of tissues.
I sighed. “Thank you.”
“Of course!”
When I stepped out of the stall, Averie was standing next to a girl with long, pin-straight black hair. The girl was bent over the hand dryer with her chest pushed out, as if trying to catch the air from the dryer on her chest.
“Heeey, I know you,” Averie said as she looked up.
“And I know you.” I smiled. “Thanks for inviting me.”
“No, thank you for coming!”
I glanced at her friend as I made my way to the sink to wash my hands.
“This is Nicky, my friend from Alpen Springs North,” Averie explained as another guest wandered inside the bathroom. “She kind of spilled a little, uh, juice on herself.”
Nicky turned to face me, and my eyebrows rose at the light brown stain that was almost the size of a fist on the white upper section of her black-and-white dress.
“Oh no, you can’t dry it like that! It’s going to leave a stain,” I told her.
“I know. My dad’s going to kill me if he sees it.”
I walked over to the hand dryer, my wet hands raised in front of me. “May I—”
“Yeah, go ahead, sorry,” Nicky said as she stepped out of the way. “And I love your dress! It’s so cute! You have like the perfect body.”
My cheeks flushed as I dried my hands, but my self-esteem grew amidst the thoughts of how much smaller my breasts were in comparison to hers. “Thank you.” With my eyes fixated on the stain, I added, “I think you’re going to have to take it off to get it out.”
Nicky pressed a hand to her chest and peered down, pouting. “Nooo.”
“Averie could get your coat, and I could try to work on getting out the stain, I’m sure they have something in the kitchen or cleaning closet to remove it.”
“But how would we dry it? This hand thing isn’t working.”
“Ah . . .”
Maybe Lee could help.
“I’m friends with the guy whose parents own the Moon Laundromat. It would only take us like two minutes to walk over there, but I’d have to call him to help us out since it’s closed already.”
“Would his parents allow that? I wouldn’t want to impose, and would he come all the way into town?”
“Yeah, he lives like five minutes away, and he might owe me a favor or two. Or maybe I owe him a favor?” I chuckled. “Either way, I’ll give him a call, but my um, boyfriend.” The title still seemed so unfitting even after months of being with him. “He has my phone. I’ll be right back.”
When I walked out of the bathroom, Jax was nowhere in sight, and after minutes of looking for him, I found him downstairs talking to some guys.
“You’re leaving? I’m only at this stupid party because of you,” he responded after I explained, but he still held my phone out to me. I removed it from his grasp.
“I’m not leaving. I mean I am, but I’ll be right back.”
“Gabs, you don’t even know them. Just let them figure that shit out.”
“I want to help them.”
“But what about me?”
As his hand came around my waist, I moved back.
“You were fine without me a minute ago, and I’ll only be gone for a few minutes.”
I spun and walked away, already going through my contact list to find Lee’s number.
“Everything okay?” Ryker asked from right behind me. My breath caught, and my steps halted.
With a black mask covering the top portion of his face, all I could see was his ice-gray eyes, strong cheekbones, and his tousled sunset hair.
“Everything is fine,” I said.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and his eyes roamed over my face. “Cool.”
I knew I would need to talk to him at some point, over two years of holding in this hurt had been long enough, only I still didn’t have the guts to just talk to him. I supposed I could try before he left for college or before I went abroad in a couple months for my competitions. That way if he laughed in my face or rejected me
, I would be okay. Almost.
Or maybe avoidance was key. Wasn’t that the tried-and-true method of not getting hurt again?
I pressed my phone to my ear and sighed in relief when Lee picked up and agreed to meet us at the laundromat.
A minute later, I found Nicky and Averie waiting just outside the bathroom with their coats.
Averie looked over my shoulder. “Nicky, your mom. Inside, quick.”
We scurried into the bathroom, and I grinned, weirdly enjoying this. “So, I’m guessing we’re hiding because of the color of the stain on your dress?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?” Nicky asked.
“Non-alcoholic drinks are pink,” I whispered. “Where did you get alcohol?”
“Sworn to secrecy.” Nicky coughed. “Ryker.”
I swallowed.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind sharing with you,” Averie said. “If you wanted some.”
“I’ll pass. He and I . . . we aren’t that close anymore.”
Nicky cocked her head. “You know Ryker?”
Thinking and talking about him was not helping with the feelings I’d been pushing aside for years. “Somewhat. He and Brody used to hang out with me and my older brothers on the slopes, but we haven’t hung out in years.”
“Interesting. How long have you known him?” Averie asked.
“I don’t know . . . I met him in, maybe, first or second grade?”
“Really? How come you two don’t hang out anymore?” Nicky asked.
Not that question. Anything but that question.
I looked down, fidgeting with my phone. “We just aren’t really friends anymore.”
Chapter 5
Ryker
Curious about the shenanigans the girls had going on down the street, I stepped out of the party for a minute to tag along with Ash.
After knocking on the door of the Moon Laundromat for a few seconds, I stared through the dark windows, cupping the corner of my eyes until I saw movement inside.
The door unlocked, and Averie peered out. As she saw Ash, she grabbed his arm and yanked him inside.