Free One Night That Changes Everything by Lauren Barnholdt

can’t even
begin
to think about going to college, I mean, it’s going to be so crazy, it’s like …” Isabella starts chattering on and on, but I’m kind of tuning her out because I can’t stop thinking about her and Cooper. Does he love her? Has he
told
her he loves her? Are they going to get married? Have they had sex? My head is spinning with all these crazy thoughts, and so at first I don’t realize Isabella’s stopped talking and is now looking at me expectantly.
    “Totally,” I say. “College is going to be crazy. I’m really glad we’re not seniors this year.” This is a lie, since suddenly I really want nothing more than to be out of this school and away from all these people, but something tells me Isabella wouldn’t really appreciate this sentiment.
    “Totally,” she says, her eyes wide. She gets a very serious look on her face. “I just don’t understand those people who want to get out of here. It’s like, hello! Your classmates are the people you’ve grown up with, they’re part of your history!”
    “Exactly,” I say, pretending I agree with her. The train stops, and Isabella hops right out of our car I pretend to be looking for something in my purse, hoping that maybe she’ll get lost in the crowd on the platform. But when I leave the train, Isabella’s there, waiting for me and smiling.
    “Ready?” she asks.
    “Ready,” I say. And then I follow her up the stairs and onto the street.
    When we get to the party, Isabella waves and says, “See ya!” then disappears into the crowd of people in her living room. I’m insulted for a second, but then realize I can’t totally blame her. I mean, Isabella and I aren’t
really
friends. Unfortunately, I have only one friend here, and I don’t see her anywhere. In fact, the only people I see here are all of Isabella’s friends.
    “Oh,” Jessica Adams says when she sees me. “Is Kate here?” She looks past me toward the door, as if the only reason I’d dare to show up at this party would be because my sister was with me.
    “Uh, no,” I say. “She’s not.”
    “Oh.” Jessica looks disappointed (a visit from Kate, a super-popular college girl who still gets talked about at our school even though she graduated last year, would make thisparty the talk of the school on Monday), but she recovers quickly. “Well, there’s drinks in the kitchen.” She disappears down the stairs.
    I pull my phone out and call Marissa. “Where. Are. You?” I ask when she answers. I can tell she’s here, because the sounds coming through the other end of my cell phone are the same things I can hear, namely people talking and music coming through an iPod that’s hooked up to the ginormous stereo system.
    “Over in the corner, with Delia Carhart,” she says. I look over, spot them, and make my way through the crowd. No sign of Cooper or the 318s.
    “Did you get it back?” Marissa asks when she sees me.
    “No,” I say. “Although I did sing karaoke at the Spotted Frog.” I’m about to add, “with Cooper” but then realize that (a) I shouldn’t be talking about him since I don’t care if I did something with him, karaoke or otherwise, and (b) with Delia standing right here, it’s probably not a good idea to talk about it.
    “I love that place, the Spotted Fraaahg,” Delia says, drawing the word out. “They have the best mocha lattes.”
    “Yeah,” I say. Now that I think about it, I don’t like Delia that much. One time we had to be partners in history and she made me do the whole project by myself.
    “That place is really fun,” Marissa says. Then she throws her head back and laughs, which is kind of weird, since it’s not that funny. But then I spot Jeremiah over in the corner, and I get it. She’s trying to act like we’re having such a great timeover here that she’s not even noticing that he’s there. Which is the oldest trick in the book, and so he can probably see right through it. Although maybe not. I don’t think