Catalyst (The Best Days #1) (10 page)

“I’m calling 9-11!  The fire is out of control!”

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa,” Jeremy repeated, his voice inappropriately loud and his words slurred.  “Don’t get your panties in a bunch.  We’ll get the fire under control…relax, babe.  Go inside have a drink.”

When Grace didn’t immediately do as he said, Jeremy
’s bloodshot eyes narrowed.  He grabbed the phone from her hand and stuffed it down his pants.  She was so caught off guard that she barely even had time to react. 

“Hey!” Grace protested
feebly.  “Give it back…please?”

Jeremy grinned drunkenly.  “You’re welcome to come and get it,” he said, ending his invitation with a l
oud belch.  “You know you wanna,” he teased as a few of the other guys took notice and began drunkenly hooting and hollering.  Then in a stage whisper intended for everyone to hear he added, “I’ve changed my mind.  You’re not all that ugly.  I’d do ya.”

“Hey Grace, your boyfriend’s got something in his pants for ya!” one guy bellowed.

“Who’s Grace?” his buddy asked, pausing midway through the question to take a swig of beer from a bottle.  When he realized it was empty he threw it into the fire pit, shards of glass flying everywhere as the bottle shattered into a million pieces.

“Isn’t that her name?” the first guy asked with a nod in Grace’s direction.  “Oh who am I kidding, I have no idea,” h
e laughed.  “Who cares?”  Then he turned around and took another look at the fire.  “Holy shit dude, the whole backyard’s gonna go up in flames!”

Thankfully, one of the slightly more sober guys had the sense to grab the garden hose and turn it on.  Eventually, he and a few of the others did get the flames snuffed out, but by then a lot
of the damage had been done.  A good portion of the lawn was burned to a crisp and even the corner of the garden shed was singed. 

Jeremy, unsurprisingly, pulled down his pants and began to pee all over the smoking lawn.  “See?” he guffawed as he saturated the ashes in urine.  “I’ve got it under control, babe!”
  A group of guys Rory didn’t even recognize began to hoot and holler, cheering him on.  A few of them even copied him.  Mob mentality was such a strange thing.

“Ugh!” Rory exclaimed aloud, unable to hide her disgust any longer. 
She’d seen and heard more than enough.  “Seriously, put it away Jeremy,” she ordered, hands planted firmly on her hips.  “You’re being obnoxious.” 

She turned back to where Grace had been standing but she was gone.  Shrugging, Rory went back inside with the intention of telling
Hilary what had happened.  Things were getting out of hand and as far as Rory was concerned, Hilary had played a part in it by inviting way, way more people than she should have.  Half these people weren’t even part of Rory’s clique and she had a feeling more than a few of them were from other schools in neighboring towns.  Rory hated to admit it but the much-anticipated party was turning out to be bad news.

Inside, it wasn’t
Hilary that Rory encountered.  It was Carson.

“Hi,” he said, taking her hand.
  The simple act sent sparks of electricity shooting through her arm.  “Can we talk?” 

No sooner than Rory had dumbly nodded her head, heart beating madly, he led her down the hall.  They opened the first door they came to and went inside.

It was an office, with a large desk, a couple computers, a fax machine and several filing cabinets.  Rory didn’t know what Grace’s parents did for work but she could tell from the upscale furnishings that they were probably well off. 

“How’s it going?” Carson asked, leaning against the desk casually as he spoke.  He was wearing a blue t-shirt that brought out the
blue in his eyes.  He looked really hot.  Being alone with him in close quarters was making Rory’s pulse race. 

“Not bad,” Rory responded as though on autopilot.  “Are you having a good time?”

Carson grinned and moved closer to her.  “I’m having a better time now that you’re here,” he replied, smooth as ever.  “I was looking for you.”  She could smell his cologne.  He was close enough to reach out and touch her…and then he did.

The next thing Rory knew, her lips were locked with Carson’s. 

It was a surreal experience to finally be kissing Carson after all the time she’d spent dreaming about it.  It was every bit as good as she’d imagined – better, even.  His lips tasted like the alcohol spiked fruit punch that Hilary had been handing out to the party-goers. 

A little voice in the back of her head warned that maybe Carson was only kissing her because he was halfway to drunk and she happened to be there
.  Maybe the kiss was simply a matter of convenience and lowered inhibitions.  But the other voice, the one that was doing cartwheels and screaming “hooray!” quickly silenced it.  For once, Rory wasn’t going to let her self-doubt ruin a perfect moment.  For once, she was just going to enjoy herself.

Rory could feel the heat from his body and her own face felt like it was on fire.  Her stomach was full of butterflies.
  Although she tried to act natural, as though she wasn’t at all fazed by kissing one of the most popular guys at school, Rory felt giddy with excitement.  In fact, she suspected the moment Carson turned his back she’d just
have
to do a ridiculous, celebratory happy dance.

When Carson pulled away, disappointment and panic flooded through Rory.  Had she done something wrong?  Did he think she was a bad kisser?  Something about him brought out her insecure side.  She just really, really wanted him to like her.

Rory breathed a sigh of relief when Carson spoke.

“
You look hot tonight,” he said, smiling so that the corners of his eyes crinkled adorably.  “But then you always do.”

“I…do?”  Rory couldn’t hide her surprise. 
He’d been noticing her!  Surely that was a good sign.  Ha!  Take that, nagging little voice of doom!

“
Okay, I’m just going to come right out and say it. I try to find excuses to run into you in the hallways at school whenever I can.  I’ve been trying to think up another excuse to call you,” he said somewhat sheepishly.  “The whole English homework thing didn’t exactly go the way I’d hoped.”

Rory wasn’t sure but she thought his face looked a little flushed.  He was blushing! 
The thought that
she
was making
him
nervous was a strange one indeed.  Or maybe he was just one of those people whose faces turned red when they drank alcohol. 
Shut up, little voice!

“I always look for you after class,” Rory confessed quietly
.  This was new and unfamiliar territory for Rory.  Maybe it was strange considering what a hopeless romantic she was underneath it all, but it was hard for her to lay her heart bare.  It meant she had to be vulnerable and for Rory, that was a terrifying prospect.

Thankfully, her confession was well received. 

“Cool…I wasn’t sure you even liked me,” Carson said with a grin.

“I like you.”  That was an understatement if there ever was one!  Rory’s heart was beating a mile a minute and her palms were sweaty.  It felt like she was living that perfect movie moment where everything falls into place and music starts to play as the credits roll and a sunset magically appears for the characters to walk off into.  

“Things are getting a little insane out there,” Carson observed as a loud crash on the other side of the door startled them both.  “Do you want to get out of here?”

Rory’s face lit up.  Her dreams, it seemed, were coming true.  “Yes!” she practically shouted.  Then, blushing, she cleared her throat and bashfully looked at the floor.  “I mean…that sounds cool, I guess,” she corrected herself, trying to sound aloof rather than overjoyed. 

She didn’t ask where they were going.  She didn’t care.  Anywhere was fine with Rory as long as Carson was there with her.

Rory and Carson left the tiny office hand in hand.  He led her toward the front door, but Rory hesitated on the front step. 

“What is it?” he asked, turning to look at her.  The way the moonlight illuminated his handsome features was like something out of a painting.  She wished she could take a photo so she could revisit the way Carson looked in this exact moment again and again.

She just couldn’t shake the disaster zone she’d w
alked though.  Potato chips had been strewn all over the floor, mashed into the carpet by partygoers who just didn’t care enough to step around them.  There were stains from the spiked fruit punch on the living room sofa that might not ever come out.  It even appeared a light fixture in the kitchen had been shattered, likely by some of the drunken jocks trying to play football indoors.

She was so glad Carson wasn’t like the others.

“I should go check on Grace before we leave,” she said apologetically.  “Those guys out back were being idiots earlier and she didn’t look like she was having any fun.  Maybe she wants us to shut this thing down – Hilary will be mad as hell but it might be for the best if we start making people leave sooner rather than later.”

Rory was relieved when Carson nodded, seemingly unbothered b
y the delay.  “Screw what Hilary wants,” he told her.  “I don’t know how she ended up being our dictator anyway.  Go find Grace.  Take your time…I’ll wait for you.”

Inside the house, Rory scanned the faces in the crowd.  There were a lot of people she recognized but a
bunch of unfamiliar ones as well.  In fact, some of the partygoers looked older, like they might be her brother’s age.  Rory wondered if Hilary had invited a bunch of college students or if they’d simply crashed the party.  Either scenario seemed likely.

Rory couldn’t find Grace anywhere.

“Have you seen Grace?” Rory asked the guy standing closest to her.

“Who’s that?” he asked, looking confused.

Rory sighed.  “Never mind,” she said.  Grace was offering up her house for the party – and would in all likelihood also be enduring her parents’ wrath after the fact.  Even so, most of the partygoers didn’t seem to know or care who she was. 

Grace had been at Belleview High long enough now that people should at least know her name…but many of them were too caught up in their own lives to notice her or care.

She went upstairs, noting with disdain that empty red paper beer cups and other trash had been strewn all over the place.  She just narrowly avoided stepping smack dab in the middle of a disgusting pile of what appeared to be vomit.  She wrinkled her nose in revulsion. 

Rory
knocked on the first closed door she came to.  “Go away!” a preoccupied sounding male voice yelled.  Rory could hear bedsprings creaking.  It was rather obvious what was happening inside.  She heard a female giggling.  She was pretty sure she recognized that giggle as belonging to Monica…no surprise there. 

Rory paused to listen at the second door
in the hallway before even knocking, feeling like a bit of a creep.  But she’d take eavesdropping over barging in on something she couldn’t un-see any day!  She could hear someone vomiting on the other side. 

“That must be the bathroom,” Rory whispered aloud to herself.  “Or at least I
hope
it’s the bathroom…” 

The door at the end of the hall was closed.  Rory walked toward it and then hesitated.  If there was another couple fooling around in there, she didn’
t even want to know.  Part of her wanted to just give up her search for Grace and go back to Carson downstairs, but she’d already come this far…

Rory
rapped on the door lightly.  “Hello?” she called.  “Is anyone in there?”

There was no answer.

She shrugged and turned to walk away.  A guy and girl who looked like they were probably her brother’s age half-stumbled upstairs hand-in-hand, both giggling.  Before Rory could warn them not to, they barged into the bedroom where the other couple was.  Angry shouts ensued.

Rory sighed. 

Monica stalked out of the bedroom angrily with a sheet wrapped around her.  She paused at the top of the stairs and began shouting something Rory couldn’t quite make out over the loud music from downstairs that was making the entire house vibrate.

Ro
ry didn’t care what Monica was yelling about.  She really didn’t feel like involving herself in the drama.  Since her path downstairs was blocked, she turned and walked into the room at the end of the hall to wait out the storm.

It turned out to be a bedroom.  It was clear from the purple and black décor, the posters on the wall and the teddy bear on the bed that it belonged to a teenage girl.  Grace didn’t have any sisters – at least not as far as Rory knew – so
she concluded it must be Grace’s bedroom. 

“Don’t snoop you creep,” Rory scolded herself as her eyes roamed over the room’s contents curiously.  She couldn’t help it.  She didn’t know a whole lot about Grace but
there were few things more telling than a teenaged girl’s sanctuary. 

It wasn’t an overly messy room – it was certainly nothing like Rory’s or Sheck’s, who were both admittedly bad at putting things back where they belonged.  It wasn’t quite as neat and organized as Rebecca’s room, either.  It fell somewhere in the middle.