Anything for You (Blue Heron #5)(70)

But the others would still see her as Jessica Does, class slut. Trailer park trash.

“Ah, screw it,” she said aloud. “I’m going.”

Ned was happy to stay home, since she deducted his babysitting fees from his rent; besides, Sarah had finals and had warned him not to come anywhere near her, so he had no problem watching Thor 2 and making popcorn with Davey.

Jess opened her little closet and pulled out the best dress she had—a simple sleeveless white knit. She’d worn it to the Black & White Ball last year, and Honor said she looked like a supermodel. Black high heels. Little gold hoops. She put her hair up in a French twist, brushed on some blush and took a look at herself in the mirror.

In another year, she’d own a house. She’d have a front porch with hanging baskets bursting with petunias and sweet potato vine and lobelia. There would be pretty ceramic tiles featuring the house number. She’d have a porch swing, damn it. She’d already come a long way from West’s Trailer Park.

“You smell nice,” Davey said as she kissed him good-night.

“I would also like a kiss,” Ned said. She smacked his head instead and drove across town.

The gym looked and smelled the same as all gyms in all high schools across America, more or less. Low lights, a few tables with candles, a DJ in the corner.

“Jessica!” Jeremy Lyon said, kissing her on both cheeks, as if she hadn’t just seen him at Hugo’s yesterday. “What have you been up to since graduation?”

“I invented Facebook,” she said, grinning. “And you?”

“I’m a gay.” He pulled a face, then put an arm around his boyfriend. “See?”

“Hi, Patrick. Yes, I seem to remember you coming out, since I was at your unwedding.”

“So you were. You probably remember it better than I do. It was a blur of terror for me.”

Shockingly, there were actually people who hadn’t heard about Jeremy “turning gay,” so that was one story making the rounds. Faith, who’d been engaged to the guy, was also squealed over by those who didn’t know she’d married Levi.

Other stories were Tiffy Ames, who’d left the military and invented a computer program that did something so complicated that Jess would need another master’s degree to understand it. But she and Tiffy hugged tight; they came from the same place, and Jess was truly happy for her old friend.

“What’s your house like?” Jess asked. Once upon a time, when they were kids playing in the creek behind the trailer park, they’d talked about where they’d live someday.

“It’s on the water in Santa Barbara. Jess, you have to visit me. Please, please visit me.”

“I would love that,” she said. It was hard to imagine going to California, but what a nice visual!

“What about your place?” Tiffy asked.

Jess shrugged. “It’s on Academy Street. We’re getting there. Renting now, plans to buy next year.”

“You’ll invite me over when you’re in, won’t you?” Tiffy asked. She looked fantastic; no longer too thin, better dressed, her hair no longer bleached white-blond.

“Of course I will,” Jess said. She held out her phone and took a selfie of the two of them. “Look at us. We’re awesome.”

“We are!” Tiffy said. “We should be the trailer-park poster children. Speaking of that, there’s Levi. I gotta go squeeze those biceps.” She laughed, then went to say hi to their old friend.

Jess sipped a glass of wine from a plastic cup and hung back a little, just watching. Funny, how things never changed that much. Colleen, the most popular girl in high school, was the most popular girl at the reunion. Her stomach was getting a lot of pats, and Lucas, who’d graduated with them but had only moved to Manningsport in their senior year, was having his back slapped a lot. Levi and Jeremy were still best friends. Bryce Campbell, the class pretty boy, was dating Paulie Petrosinsky, who’d worshipped him back then. Theresa DeFilio was still taking care of everyone, making sure people had wine, talking to the caterers.

People whipped out their phones to show pictures of their kids, bragging about their jobs or glossing over things they didn’t want to discuss.

And yes, some people—women all—shot looks her way. She returned the looks steadily. Not everyone had aged that well; Tanya Cross had gained at least a hundred pounds, and Carleen Krasinsky had dyed her hair black and gone the “too big for nature” breast implant route.

But she couldn’t see Connor anywhere. She hoped he hadn’t stayed away because of her.

The DJ was playing “Rock Your Body” by Justin Timberlake, and a fair number of people were dancing, Faith and Jeremy taking up lots of room, since Jer was a terrible dancer and flailed like he was being electrocuted. Colleen and Lucas were looking far better, Colleen’s pregnancy only making her look more beautiful. Bryce and Paulie were laughing. So cute, those two. Theresa DeFilio and her nice husband, slow dancing despite the up-tempo song.

“Jessica Does!” boomed a voice, and Big Frankie Pepitone put his arm around her.

That f*cking name. “Hey, Frankie,” she said.

“You still are incredibly hot,” Frankie said.

“Since last week when I saw you last?”

He gave her a one-armed hug. “Remember the time we did it in my rec room?”