If I Forget You (7 page)

As she made her way through the entryway and the sitting room, she scanned every face, expecting to run into Tam any second. But there was no sign of her. Avery looked into green eyes, dark blue eyes, brown eyes, hazel eyes. No light blue eyes. Then she realized there was something different about the atmosphere at this party
—
different from all those high school parties she and Tam had gone to. There was always an air of nervousness at high school parties, no matter how slight, because hardly anyone was old enough to legally drink. There was always drinking, but a lot of times it was more discreet, and adults were rarely around. Avery thought it would be the same here, but as she looked from face to face, she realized everyone here was older than her. It didn’t look like any of them were freshmen. She spotted a few men who must be in their late twenties.

“Ave!”

Avery spun around, her clutch whacking a girl next to her. The girl gave her an evil glare and walked away. Tam, in all her glory, stepped through a pair of open French doors and squeezed past a bunch of people to get to Avery, who gritted her teeth. She was irritated that she hadn’t found Jordan before Tam found her.

Tam’s hair was pulled into a messy bun on the top of her head, curls sticking out every which way. She was in a black camisole and pair of tight jeans. She gave Avery a loose, mint-scented hug.

“Wow, you look great,” Tam said, breathless as she stepped back to look at Avery. “Did you drive here? Do you have a car now or are you on campus?”

Avery opened her mouth to tell her she lived next door then decided that was probably not the best idea. “No,” she answered vaguely, looking Tam up and down. “You look good too. How’d you get here?”

“Walked from my dorm.” She looked off to the side as she put a beer bottle to her lips and took a deep swig. Avery winced. In the past she and Tam had decided together not to drink before they were twenty-one. Apparently, that was out the window now.

“So, have you seen Jordan?” Tam asked.

Avery’s heart thumped. “No, I just got here. Where is he?”

“Last I saw him, he was talking to the DJ somewhere over there.” Tam pointed to the other side of the room, but Avery couldn’t see anything past the sea of people. Before she headed over there, she turned back to Tam, who was watching her with hard green eyes. They softened after a moment.

“How do you know him?” Avery asked. “Is he in one of your classes?”

Tam smiled. “He’s my biology professor’s son. Funny, huh?” She took another swig of beer. “But that’s all I know, really. Guess I caught his eye when he came into class last week to bring her a bunch of papers. He came in again today and waited for me after class to invite me to the party.” She blushed.

“Huh.” Avery shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “He invited me after we bumped into each other on the stairs.”

Tam’s nose scrunched. “Just like we bumped into each other. You really haven’t changed, have you, Avery?”

Her question was more of a statement. It felt like a slap across the face, especially since it was obvious how much Tam had changed. It was more than just the drinking. Everything about her felt shifted, even further from what she’d been in high school after the fallout. Avery wasn’t sure how to react.

“I’m going to get a drink,” Avery muttered, and slipped past Tam into the crowd. She thought she could hear Tam calling after her, but the loud music made it easy to ignore her. Avery didn’t know what to do around Tam, or what to say to her. All that time together. All that friendship. She had no idea if Tam wanted it back, and if she did, Avery wasn’t sure she wanted to give it. Actually, she was pretty sure she didn’t.

The kitchen was packed, just like the rest of the house. There was a table filled with drinks and she found a Coke in an ice chest filled with juice and soft drinks for mixers. She opened the can and sipped at it as she headed into the main part of the house again, looking for the DJ. Men bumped up against her, and when one wrapped his hands around her hips to pull her into his arms, she told him to get his hands off her.

“Chill out, bitch,” he answered, letting her go. He looked about twenty-five. “Who you lookin’ for?”

Was it that obvious she was on the hunt for someone? She gave the guy a faint smile. “Jordan, the guy who lives here.”

“Oh, Jordan … well, yeah, good luck. Everybody’s lookin’ for him, aren’t they?”

He turned away from Avery and she pushed onward, finally making her way to the DJ. He was a heavily tattooed man who looked like he didn’t want to be interrupted as he held one hand to his headphones and studied something on his computer at the table in front of him. Avery didn’t see Jordan anywhere near him, so she backtracked, catching a glimpse of Tam hanging on some guy’s arm, and then spun around to head in the other direction. She spun a little too fast and ran right into someone. Her Coke sloshed up the can and spilled across her hand and onto the gray button-up shirt of the guy in front of her.

“I am
so
sorry,” she gasped, looking up into his face. Light blue eyes. Sharp features. She looked down at his shoes. Oxfords.

“I’ve been looking for you,” he said, laughing. He brushed ineffectually at the Coke splattered across his shirt. “Guess we’re meant to slam into each other, right?”

Her mouth dropped open at the blatant sexual suggestion.
Slam
in that context only meant one thing at Shadle High. “Um …”

He laughed, cutting her off at the same time as a particularly loud song tore through the room. Nodding to the beat, he looked down at the Coke in her hands and bent down to her ear. “You’re a junior, right?”

“Freshman,” she answered as something stirred in the back of her mind. She tried to push it forward, but no luck. She felt like he should already know she was a freshman. “My mom held me back a grade when I was little. I’m nineteen.”

He stayed close to her ear. “Then thanks for not drinking. At least, I’m guessing there’s nothing but Coke in that can?”

She looked down at the brown liquid fizzing on the lip of the can. She suddenly felt like a five-year-old being scolded. “Yeah, it’s just Coke. Why?”

He stood straight. “This party is over twenty-one only. I didn’t think about that when I invited you … I guess I was a little fazed at the moment. You know, knocking you down the stairs and all.”

She was about to ask him why he’d invited Tam, but then he grabbed her free hand and led her into a dark room where everybody was sitting on chairs in front of a TV set tuned to a sports channel broadcasting a football game.

“Quieter in here,” he said, leading her to an empty spot on a sofa in the corner. “I’m glad you came.” He sat close enough that Avery could feel his every movement. He looked her in the eyes, his face mostly in shadow.

“I had to come from so far,” she said with a chuckle. “You realize I live next door, right?” She jerked her thumb in the direction of Chloe’s house.

There was enough light for her to see his mouth drop open. “What? Some single lady lives over there. She complains about the noise sometimes. I didn’t think anyone else
—
”

“I just moved in for school,” Avery interrupted. “From Spokane. She’s my aunt.”

“Oh, well that’s …”

He kept speaking, but a cheer from everyone in the room drowned him out.

“… perfect, then, isn’t it?” he finished up as the commentator on the TV recapped the recent touchdown.

She folded her arms and smirked. “Oh, is it?”

She might look like she was handling this cool and easy on the outside, but her heart was chugging like a freight train.

“C’mon, you know I’m interested, right?”

She set her Coke can on the end table. “Do you always come on to girls this fast?”

“Actually, I never do, but you’re different.”

What a line.

“I had to get you on my turf,” he continued, “so here we are.” He brushed a finger up her arm and every nerve in her body fluttered to life. She knew she had been attracted to him before, but now that he was touching her it was something completely new. Slowly, she curled her fingers over his. A light touch, but so deliberate she felt the attraction between them sparking like electricity
—
little points of heat jumping across her skin.

What was going on?
Normally, she would hate even the idea of some guy she barely knew touching her. Normally, she would never get herself into such an intimate situation. Someone was bound to get hurt
—
and it would be all her fault.

“My friend told me your mom is one of her professors,” she said after clearing her throat.

He slid his finger from her arm and she wished he would put it back. “Who’s your friend?”

“Tam
—
you invited her. She’s eighteen, you know? I just saw her a minute ago and she was, uh, drinking.”

That was right. Rat out Tam. Avery tried to push down the guilt rising in her gut.

Jordan looked away, deep in thought. “Black curly hair?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t invite her.”

So, Tam had lied. Why was she not surprised? She realized she was chewing on her pinkie fingernail and ripped it away from her mouth. “How did she know about the party?” she asked.

“Oh, I told her about the party because she asked what I was doing tonight. But I didn’t tell her where it was, and I didn’t invite her. She was waiting for me outside her class. We talked for a few minutes and that was it. She’s your friend, huh?” He didn’t seem impressed.

Avery rolled her eyes and leaned back into the sofa. “No, not really. It’s a long story.”

He grunted and looked at his shirt. “Hey, do you mind if I go change real quick?”

“No, that’s fine. Sorry.”

“Not a big deal, honest. I might be a few minutes while I find Tam and kindly invite her to leave. The cops usually show up here at least once during the night
—
not that I’m breaking any laws. Well, not intentionally, at least.” He stood and looked down at Avery. “I’ll be pissed if this ‘friend’ of yours gets my ass busted for serving alcohol to minors. My dad would take this house out from under me in two seconds flat.”

“You sure I’m okay here?” Avery asked as her heart began slowing to a normal pace. For the first time in her life, someone she liked preferred her over Tam. It was a strange feeling and it made her lighthearted.

“No, you’re fine.” He gave her a longing look before he walked away.

She picked up her Coke and took a sip. The football game had absorbed everybody else in the room, so she zoned in on it too. She was afraid if she left she wouldn’t be able to find Jordan again.

Then, from outside the room, someone yelled, “Hey, Joel! You gotta see this!” and in a flash of heat, she second-guessed herself. Was his name Jordan? Or was it Joel? Or was his name Owen? Owen
sounded
like Jordan, at least in her head. She vaguely remembered an Owen from somewhere. It was the O she remembered for sure. She clenched her teeth together.
Damn it.
She hadn’t brought her notebook. It was nuts how fast she could forget a name, how she thought she had it and then it sank into the nether like a bowling ball thrown into the sea.

8

Avery’s Coke was mostly gone when a figure stepped into view and leaned down. “Remember me?” he asked.

She smiled at him in the semi-darkness. Square features, blond hair. He had changed his shirt into a blue button-down, leaving it untucked. He must have a whole closetful of those button-downs. Avery had to admit they looked great on him.

“Of course I do,” she laughed, setting her Coke on the end table. There was no way she was going to tell him she had suddenly forgotten his name. She was pretty sure it was Jordan, but that seed of doubt had been planted and she didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of him. Jordan. Joel. What did it matter? She’d look it up in her notebook when she got home. Until then, she could avoid saying his name.

“I was thinking,” he said, sitting next to her. “You want to go upstairs for a bit? There are some empty bedrooms up there.” He reached out a hand and brushed some hair away from her cheek. “If you’re interested, I’m game.”

She had to admit the offer was tempting. No guy had ever invited her “upstairs for a bit.” She was pretty sure he meant sex. Either that or a lot of kissing and messing around. Her heart pounded and her surprised expression must have been more of an invitation than she thought, because before she could answer one way or another, he grabbed her hand and led her out of the room. She followed him through the crowd and up the stairs, wondering what she was about to get herself into. He tugged on her hand.

“Come on,” he laughed. “What’s the matter? I’ve seen the way you look at me.”

She frowned, wondering if he meant when their hands had touched or just now or some other time. “The way I look at you? What do you think I want?”

He let go of her hand and folded his arms. The music was loud and the hallway in front of her was dark. There must have been three bedrooms up here. One door was closed and two were open.

“I’m sorry,” he said, leaning against the wall as he looked at her. “I thought this might be okay with you. I hardly know you, but I’ve never had someone look at me the way you do. It’s like … like you’re trying to tell me something, or memorize everything about me. It’s mind-blowing, all right? I haven’t been able to get you out of my head for days. Seeing you here is sending me over the freakin’ edge.”

She didn’t know what to say. Did she look at everyone that way? Was it because she was trying to sear their faces into her memory so she didn’t feel like a fool next time she saw them? Probably. Maybe everything with him was a mistake. He must think she was some spectacular girl who wanted to give him the moon. In reality, she would forget he even wanted the moon.

“Are you uncomfortable?” he asked as worry crept into his expression. “Do you want to …?” He motioned to one of the open bedroom doors. For all she knew, it was his bedroom. He looked so sincere, so hopeful, as if they had made plans to do this a week ago and she was pulling out.