Foolish Summer | ✔

11 • W A V E R L Y • 💥

I was an idiot for showing up.

What was I expecting from the guy who pretended to be a character from a book the first day we met?

Watching him go up stairs to do who knew what with that girl was a sign. My mom was right. Stephen Davis was not worth the risk of her losing her job.

Leaving probably would've been the best idea, but I didn't want Stephen to think I was only there for him. Because I wasn't.

Theo's mom picked him up a little after Stephen invited us to the party and being in that huge house alone while there was a party full of interesting people right next door seemed ridiculous.

I came to make friends. Stephen was an afterthought. Not even that. Stephen who?

A party full of wealthy teens was the same as the parties I'd been to back home. The only differences were that everyone seemed to be wearing designer clothes and drinking expensive alcohol.

I felt out of place and a little childish in my cherry printed top and chucks. Especially since the girls there looked like they'd have thousands of Instagram followers based on appearances alone.

After aimlessly wandering the house for a few minutes I was roped into a game of Spades. I hadn't played in years and it showed. We were in the backyard crowded around a fold-out card table, playing in the light of tiki torches. The same ones Stephen bought back when he made the fort.

I glanced up at the dark windows at the back of the house, wondering which room belonged to him and if he was still in there.

Not that I cared. Because I didn't.

My Spade's partner, a cute guy with medium brown skin and short dreads with a side fade-like Michael B. Jordan in Black Panther-had to give me a quick refresher of the rules.

"Sorry," I said to him after losing the third game in a row. "I feel like it's my fault we keep losing."

"It's not," he assured me, pointing to the couple across from us. "They cheating."

"Y'all just wack!" The girl laughed, picking up her cup and frowning after realizing it was empty. "I need a refill."

Once her and her boyfriend left the other players disbanded, officially ending the game.

Killmonger, who's actual name I couldn't remember, hung back to clean up the cards. I helped just to have something to do.

Making friends was harder than I anticipated. The people there were either intimidating or super drunk. Killmonger was the only person who spoke to me.

"You live over here?" He asked, arranging the cards in a deck.

"My mom and I are renting the house next door." Technically, we weren't renting the house. Shontell was footing the bill.

I handed him the cards I collected from my side of the table before asking, "Why?"

"Because you don't look like you're from here," he said casually as he forced the card into their box.

Meanwhile, my brain filled with a hundred questions. What did that mean? Was it my hair? My clothes? What about me said "other"?

I hated myself for thinking about the girl Stephen went upstairs with. I didn't even see her face, I didn't need to. Everything from her outfit to her hair to her gorgeous dark skin was perfect. I'm sure her face was perfect, too.

He sat the cards aside, looking at me and licking his lips. "I definitely would've noticed you before."

Oh. He was flirting. I let myself breathe. Then I tensed again.