The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett(42)

“Really, it’s OK,” Enzo said. “I’ve taken the bus from here a million times, kid.”

“Yeah. Of course you have. I’ll give you a call later, OK?”

Enzo nodded and looked back at the yearbook. I left him sitting in Lizzie’s sterile, white apartment.

There was a weird feeling in my stomach that I tried to ignore.





Chapter 18


Full Moon

At work, Christa was babbling about how she had so much to do to get ready for her cousin’s bridal shower and how her cousin was being a bridezilla and checking her registry, like, once an hour to see what gifts had been purchased. Which made Christa not want to throw the shower at all, but she had to. I nodded like I cared, even though weddings are not at all interesting to me.

“Want me to take your shift tonight?” I asked. I got off at eight, and Christa was scheduled to close. “It sounds like you could use a few extra hours.”

“That’s sweet, but you don’t need to do that.”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“Hawthorn, you’re seventeen, and it’s Saturday night. You have better things to do than hang out with Vernon.”

The thing was, I didn’t. I’d rather be at work than sitting at home feeling sorry for myself, because what could be more boring than that? I thought about telling Christa that, but she’d maybe, probably, think I was a loser, because she likely always had weekend plans when she was my age.

“Yeah, I guess I do have plans,” I mumbled.

“A date?” Christa asked, her eyes all sparkly at the prospect of gossip.

“Not really.”

“You aren’t still hanging out with Lizzie’s guy, are you?”

No one had sat at the counter since I’d last wiped it down, but I grabbed a cloth and hit the Formica with some elbow grease.

“Enzo, you mean? We hang out, but it’s not like that.”

“Good. You should be dating someone more…wholesome.”

I frowned. “What if the wholesome boys don’t like me?”

“Then make them like you.”

“What if I don’t like them?”

Christa laughed and patted me on the back. “We’ve all had that problem.”

She wandered to see if Vernon needed anything, and I continued to clean.

Did Christa really think I could just make someone like me? It sounded like something Lizzie would say. It wasn’t that simple. Either someone liked me or they didn’t, and it was out of my control.

Or was it? Christa was the kind of person who’d probably show up to a party whether she was invited or not. And she’d be so friendly and easygoing that no one would think anything of it. Christa accepted everyone, so everyone accepted her too.

Maybe it was my own fault that I didn’t have a real boyfriend. Or friends. Or a social life. Maybe I should have been putting myself out there instead of waiting for people to come to me. If I had nothing to do on a Saturday night, maybe it’s because I wasn’t really looking.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I went into Mr. Walczak’s office and called Enzo.

“Hello?” he said, sounding like I woke him up, even though it was evening.

“Do you want to go to a party tonight?”

? ? ?

The scene at the Barn was pretty much what I expected: drunk teenagers making stupid decisions while listening to bad music.

Enzo and I parked and walked across the empty highway toward the lights and noise. The full moon was high in the sky, and I wondered where Lizzie was and if the moon was on her mind too.

The barn doors were thrown open, creating a sort of half-inside, half-outside party. There were people everywhere. Small groups leaned in to hear each other over the sound of the band. Other kids were dancing and playing drinking games that had rules I’d never been taught. Enzo and I passed a girl who was on all fours, puking beside a trash can instead of into it. I was finally experiencing the sort of party I’d seen in a thousand movies. And I didn’t particularly like it.

“I can’t believe I’m here,” Enzo said, leaning close so I could hear him over the music. “When I was a teenager, I had nightmares about places like this.”

“We’ll just stay long enough to hear the band play, OK?”

“I’m the oldest person here,” he said, looking around like he expected the police to jump out of the bushes and arrest him for being too adult.

“Well, everyone here hates me, so we’re equally out of place.”

I strode into the barn like I had purpose, because I didn’t know what else to do. We squeezed by a group of football players and their girlfriends who were clustered around a keg. One of the guys shouted, “Holy shit, Hawthorn Creely at a party?”

“Don’t you have werewolves to hunt?” one of the girls taunted.

I ignored them and kept walking.

It was warm inside despite how cool the night was. The whole place reeked of beer. A stage was set up opposite the doors, and a band was playing. I didn’t see Logan though, so it must not have been Strength in Numbers. I looked around for something to do or someone for Enzo and me to talk to, and even though I recognized almost every face, there wasn’t a group we could join.

Enzo and I stood awkwardly at the edge of the crowd, and I was thinking what a mistake it was to have come when I heard someone shout my name in a much friendlier way than the jock outside had.