Fallen Crest High(134)

He cleared his throat and looked in pain as he did it.

"Mark? Hello?"

I spotted Lydia and Becky down the hallway. They were giggling about something, but both stopped in their tracks when they saw who was in front of me. Hands flew over their mouths and their heads bumped together. They scurried into a nearby bathroom and I knew they wouldn't save me either.

He continued to stare over my head and his mouth kept twitching. I grew tired of waiting and snapped my fingers in front of him. "Hey, I'm down here. Look at me if you're going to talk to me."

His eyes widened a fraction. "Oh yeah…"

Oh goodness. Here we go again.

"Um…okay, this is really weird to say, but…uh… My mom wanted me to invite you to our house tomorrow night."

"Why?"

"For dinner." He looked down now and almost jumped back a foot. He frowned, twisted at his shirt's collar, and looked away. "This is so uncomfortable."

"And perplexing." I grabbed his shirt and hauled his face down so he was eye level with me. "Why does your mom want me over for dinner?"

"Because of Coach."

"Explain."

"Oh, uh, they're dating." He reared back. "You didn't know?"

My heart shrunk. "I had hoped to forget it. Thanks for reminding me."

His mouth twitched up now. "Hey, no problem. Okay, so she wants you to come over around six. Can you bring a bottle of wine?"

"I'm underage."

He shrugged. "Get one from your mom; tell her it's for the dinner."

"And is it?"

He grinned again. "Nah, man. We can drink it later. I figure you can come to dinner and then we can take off for the party afterwards. It'd look cool to show up with a bottle of wine, you know. It's like we're mature and grown up."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"The Kade party." He frowned at me. "You didn't know?"

I glared at him. "Well I do now, don't I?"

"Yeah, it's going to be awesome. They're throwing it in some huge suite at a hotel. My dad's stayed there a few times. It's supposed to be out of this world."

So they had time to spread the word about a party, but not invite me? I folded my arms over my chest and leaned back against my locker when Mark bounced away. He slapped hands with another guy as he did so and they started laughing. I watched his lips and knew he was talking about the Kade party, the one I hadn't been informed about. Then again, I shouldn't have been surprised. Mason and Logan disappeared after Tuesday. They were with their mother the whole week. James went to their hotel one night, but Analise and I hadn't been asked to go along.

I never heard from them the rest of the week. A part of me tried to be reasonable. They were busy. They had lots of practices and I knew both were intent on demolishing Roussou, tonight's game.

It made sense why I had slipped their minds.

I groaned and let my head fall back with a thump against my locker. It made no sense. They should've called me, or texted.

"Hey." A soft voice spoke and I opened my eyes. Adam stood in front of me with a grim look on his face.

"Hey."

He looked around. "Do you think we could talk somewhere?"

I gestured for him to lead. I had no idea where to go.

He gave me a small grin before he started off and looked back every now and then to make sure I was following behind. As we passed the bathroom, Lydia and Becky popped back out. Their eyes went wide again and there was a repeat performance from before. They scurried back in with hands over their mouths and heads together.