Free Rocked Forever by Clara Bayard Page A

medically, anyway."
    "Okay, fine. It was probably spending so much time with Rick. Compared to him everyone is nice."
    "I will tell him you said that," Matthew said archly.
    "Oh, I already have."
    We both laughed as there was a loud knock at the door.
    "Uh-oh," I said, still giggling. "He heard us. We're in trouble."
    Matthew rolled his eyes. "Go away," he said loudly at the door.
    The knocking continued.
    "What the hell?" He glanced over at the clock we'd been ignoring all day. "It's after ten. I thought everyone else would be out at a club by now."
    I frowned, remembering all the calls we'd both ignored. "Maybe it's important."
    Matthew wrapped a sheet around his waist and strode over to the door. "It better be." He gave me a moment to climb under the covers and then opened up.
    Joe was standing in the doorway. He looked strange. Nervous and excited, but mostly nervous.
    "What's wrong?" Matthew asked.
    "Sorry to bust in on you guys, but I need to talk to you. I tried to call and text you both."
    "We were uh… sleeping."
    Joe flashed a crooked smile. "Right, sure. Well, you can get back to ‘sleeping' in a second. I'm getting everyone together tonight. Or, I guess, tomorrow actually. Midnight. Details are in the text I sent.
    Matthew brushed his hair out of his eyes. "We're not really in the mood to go partying."
    "It's not like that. We need to talk. All of us. Including you, Ellie."
    My heart jumped into my throat. This sounded serious, and I couldn't imagine what couldn't wait until the morning. But we'd spent the entire afternoon and evening out of contact. Anything could have come up. It seemed like our bubble of happiness was going to burst a lot sooner than I thought.
    "All right, okay," Matthew said. "We'll be there."
    "Great. Thanks." Joe left, casting a strange glace over his shoulder before he went.
    Matthew shut the door and came back over to the bed.
    "That was weird, right?"
    "Yeah," he agreed. "Definitely weird. I guess we better find our phones to see what the hell is going on."
    The sense of calm serenity I'd been basking in was smothered by worry as I prepared for the latest disaster.

Eight
    At the stroke of midnight Matthew and I were waiting in a closed bar at the hotel. He was in dark jeans and a nice shirt, and I'd thrown on a cute dress to look "kinda nice" as requested in Joe's mysterious text messages. Matthew had been telling me all about the really awkward evening he'd spent with my brother, which explained another mystery. I was still laughing when we met up with the others, similarly attired. We headed into the bar together and assembled in the center of the room. Dex, Becca and Rick were roaming around. Julia and I stood together, speculating about what was going on.
    "You don't have any idea?" I asked the stunning redhead.
    "No. I know Liss got into town this evening. Maybe this has to do with her?"
    "Maybe. But why would I need to be here? I've only met the girl like twice."
    "Fuck if I know. But there's a bottle of tequila with my name on it upstairs and I'd really like to get back to it." She cast a look at Becca, who was smoothing her long blond ponytail. Julia took my hand and dragged me over to the other woman. "What's going on, Becca? You know everything. Spill."
    Becca grinned. "Not this time. Joe asked me to book this place for the night but that's all I got."
    "Fuck. Well, if he doesn't show in the next five minutes I'm out. I want to go dancing."
    "Don't worry, there's time for that," Joe said from behind us. He was standing at the bottom of a spiral staircase, wearing a black suit with no tie and black and white tennis shoes. Liss was behind him. Her dark hair was wild around her shoulders and she looked adorable in a short dress that flattered her curvy form.
    Everyone began talking at once, trying to find out what was going on. Joe held his hands up to silence us.
    "Look, I know you're all curious. And I'm sorry to be so cryptic, but I've got to do something important tonight