Secrets, Lies, and Summer Skies

Chapter Five

Normally, Jenny's parties were wild.

Like, people on the front lawn chugging beer and climbing through the windows wild.

So, when I pulled up outside of her house and only saw a few lights on, I realized something was up. There was no thudding music making the windows rattle in their frames, no jeers from the house, and none of the neighbors had called the cops. Just as I reached for my seatbelt, my phone vibrated on the dashboard.

"Jen'?" I asked apprehensively. "What's going on?"

"That's your car out front, right?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, but where's the party?"

"Don't move, I'm coming out."

Suddenly feeling like I'd just driven into something like a hostage crisis, I leaned back in my seat and gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. The front door opened, and Jenny raced out of the house, her purse tucked under her arm and her heels clicking a rapid beat against the path. She tore open the passenger side door and dropped into the seat, breathless and laughing.

"Go!" she commanded.

I turned over the ignition and asked, "Go where?"

"Just go, I'll tell you when we're out of here."

I peeled away from the house and down the street, putting as much distance between us and her house as was possible within the first few minutes. Only once we were clear of the residential area did I pull the car over beneath a streetlight. Cast in its orange glow, I turned in my seat and took in her appearance. Jenny was dressed for a night out, that was for sure. The knee-high boots were her go-to choice when we were about to hit a club. Her outfit was barely a dress. It was a slip of fabric with a spaghetti-thin halter neck strap which was so low on her back that it showed the top of her ass, and when she leaned forwards it gaped away from her torso to display the curve of the side of her breasts. I didn't need to guess what she hoped to get out of the evening.

"What happened to the party?" I already dreaded the answer.

"So, don't freak out," she began, "but my parents came home early. I had to call everyone to cancel. It was a whole thing."

"Seriously?"

"I know, right?" Jenny flipped down the sun visor and checked her makeup in the mirror. "But I had a contingency plan, so it's cool."

"Did your contingency plan involve not telling me that the party was cancelled?"

"Of course!" Jenny turned in her seat to face me. She reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Babe, what would you have done if I told you the party was off?"

"Stayed home?"

"Right?" She grinned. "I had to get you out here before I told you, otherwise you'd have been super boring and responsible like always. And, like, kidnapping you is out of the question with Grayson around, so this was the only way."

I groaned. Sneaking out of the house without telling Grayson where I was going was fine when I thought I'd be at Jenny's house. At least then I wouldn't need to lie if he called to check up on me. I could've just, you know, not told him that there was also a party going on. He knew Jenny and had her address for emergencies. If he'd thought that it was just a sleepover, then he wouldn't have freaked out about it. But... this? I didn't know it was such a good idea. The clubs in our area weren't exactly on the up-and-up. Whenever we'd visited them in the past, it'd always been in a large group so that we had safety in numbers. Just the two of us felt like a risk.