Free Always Us (We Were Us Series Book 2) by Unknown

I didn’t want Andrew to know the reason I’d ignored his calls and texts was because I was too busy making out with Josh. And now I was too busy kind of making out with Andrew to talk to Josh. But I had a valid reason to not talk to Josh. He hurt me.
    “I don’t want to get into it right now,” I said.
    “That’s fair. But if we’re going to do this thing, you and me, we need to start telling each other things.” He drew me into a hug.
    “Like, what you were doing on the computer.”
    His chest bucked against the side of my head in a laugh. He hugged me tighter and kissed the top of my head.
    “I will tell you about that, but not right now. Right now, I need to get dressed before Michelle shows up.”
    “Too late!” Michelle chimed in. “I let myself in. Hope you don’t mind.
    “Not at all,” Andrew said, releasing me. 
    “Having a heart to heart?” she asked, plopping herself down on his bed.
    “No, just talking normally,” I said, joining her on the bed. “What costume did you get?”
    “Slutty nurse!” Michelle squealed.
    “Interesting,” Andrew said. “I’ll leave you two alone now.” And he left.
    “Why that?” I asked.
    “I don’t know. Just looked fun I guess. Plus, I know nurses, and they are not slutty. They could use a night out.”
    We both laughed.
                                                                                        ***
    A short while later, people started showing up. Michelle and I had spent the last twenty minutes setting up snacks and drinks. We moved the red leather couch against the side wall so there was more room to mingle. Andrew opened the sliding glass door for more room as well. It led out to a small patio with a community lake further back. The people Andrew lived with owned a pontoon boat. Maybe this summer I’d stay in Brookhaven and spend the baking hot days laying out on the boat with Andrew.
    “Jenna,” Michelle snapped me out of my mini daydream.
    “Yeah,” I said, still a little dazed.
    “What’s up with you and Andrew?” She was whispering.
    “Nothing,” I whispered back. “Why?” I glanced around but didn’t see Andrew anywhere in the small crowd.
    “I don’t know, I just felt like I’d interrupted something earlier.”
    “Oh.” I wanted to tell her, I needed some feedback about what had happened. I wanted to be intimate with Andrew, but I don’t know what was stopping me. In the middle of a costume party, wasn’t the place though. “Yeah, I’ll tell you later. Not here.”
    Michelle grinned a stupid grin. She knew what I was going to tell her. Or at least she thought she knew. I realized that I missed just chatting with her. We hadn’t had any girl time lately. She used to be my go-to girl about everything. I don’t even know if I’d told her the full story of what happened to Josh and me, or that he’s been calling and texting.
    She shrugged and said okay. We mingled with the party. More people showed up along with Stefanie and Lauren. I bet they had driven together. Lauren was clinging to a tall, beefy guy. He wore a Brookhaven Community College football jersey with the number twenty-seven on the back. That took the guess work out of where he went to school and what he did. He looked vaguely familiar though. He’d probably been in one of my classes at some point. I was going to reserve my judgment of him until after I met him in person, but at first glance, he looked a little dim.
    I took Michelle’s hand and dragged her over to the door where Stef and Lauren were lingering.
    “Stefanie!” I called out. She turned to find me and smiled when she saw me. We hugged.
    “You look great,” she said to me.
    “So do you,” I reply. She spins and sparkles as her glitter dress catches the light. “What are you?”
    “I don’t know,” she laughs. I had this dress and needed an excuse to wear it so I wore it here!”
    “Well you look