“Let’s play eight-ball,” Hunter said.
“Fine, rack ‘em up, fine sir,” Kerry said, pointing his pool cue at Hunter with a flourish.
After Hunter and I beat Colleen and Kerry in our first game, Colleen and Kerry went upstairs. The guy and girl who had been pounding the ping pong ball across the net at each other threw down their paddles and went upstairs, too. Even the couple that had been making out on the couch left, leaving us downstairs alone. We kept playing eight-ball, and I could feel Hunter’s eyes on me every time I leaned over the table to reach a shot. Someone started playing a song about twenty-seven tattoos upstairs, and between shots we started dancing and singing along.
A tingle of excitement ran up my spine. Hunter was paying attention to me, only me. I’d surprised him by being able to play pool.
I took a shot, and my cue ball barely touched the number four ball, nudging it a few inches.
“It kissed the four,” Hunter said, using pool lingo, but he smiled at me when he said it, and I could feel myself turning red. We were halfway through another game of eight ball when Colleen appeared on the stairs. “My parents are here,” she said. “Time to go.”
I leaned on my pool cue. I was stripes and Hunter was solids, and we each had two balls left on the table.
“Hang around,” Hunter said. “I can give you a ride home.”
“You could?” I knew I should go home with Colleen’s parents, but Hunter and I had been joking around, and everything felt magical.
“Are you coming?” Colleen said. “You have to decide now.”
I glanced at Hunter, who was chalking the end of his cue stick. His pastel polo shirt, his khakis, his pink cheeks.
Daddy would want me to go home with Colleen’s parents. Daddy wouldn’t have let me come to this party in the first place. What would Mama want? I didn’t know. She was so wrapped up in Barry, she probably didn’t care.
“You sure you can take me home?” I asked Hunter.
“Yeah, no problem.”
“Okay, then,” Colleen said, and she snuck me a wink. “I’ll tell my parents you have permission to stay, and I’ll text you later.” I watched her feet disappear as she headed up the stairs. “I hope you don’t get in trouble,” she called back.
Me too. Suddenly I felt nervous.
Hunter took a shot at the four in a corner pocket and just missed. The cue ball rolled to a stop lined up to put the eleven into another corner. Carefully, I leaned over the table and lined up my shot. Feeling Hunter’s eyes on me, I leaned forward a little more. Gently, I hit the cue. The eleven dropped in.
“Where’d you learn to play pool?” Hunter asked as I circled the table, looking for another shot. Apparently I hadn’t learned how to play well enough to line up my next shot like I’d seen Barry do.
“My stepfather has a table. When I was living with him and my mom, they used to play, and I’d play with them. I’m not very good.”
“You’re better than a lot of girls.”
“Well, thanks.” I rolled my eyes. “I think.”
On his next turn, Hunter sank both of his solids but then missed the eight. He would win on the next turn if I didn’t sink the nine now. I danced to the song playing upstairs, moving my hips, feeling like I had special powers, drawing Hunters’s eyes to me. I made the angle too sharp and missed, leaving Hunter an easy angle on the eight.
“Too bad!” Hunter said. He put the eight in, winning the game.
“Shoot! I gave you that. Well, good game.” I put my cue back in the rack on the wall, and headed for the stairs, thinking we’d go up now.
“Where’re you going? Let’s hang down here for awhile.” He sat on the couch.
I hesitated. “Don’t you want to see what’s going on upstairs? People might be wrecking your house.”
“I’m not worried.” He patted the couch next to him. “Come on.”
After a few seconds, I sat down next to him. Did he know I had a crush on him? Did I want to kiss him? My heart was skittering and my mouth felt dry. My thigh was touching his, and my skin tingled in that spot. What should I talk about? Diana seemed to think I was so good at this, but suddenly I was drawing a blank.
“So, have you ever had to save anybody while lifeguarding?” I finally asked him.
“Yeah, the first weekend I was lifeguarding was Memorial Day, and the pool was really crowded. This little kid in the shallow end walked too deep and his face went under. His mom was talking to another mom and wasn’t paying attention. I jumped in and scooped him up. It happened in like, a heartbeat.”
“Whoa, scary. Good that you had your eyes on him.”
“Yeah. It was kind of freaky since it was my first weekend. But nothing else has happened since then. Lifeguarding is weird because it seems boring just sitting there but, I mean, something could happen in the blink of an eye.”
“Yeah. Do you have groupies?” I laughed as I said it. “When we used to go to the pool in our development, when we were about ten, we thought the lifeguards were really cool. We’d talk to them all the time.”
Hunter laughed and his cheeks flushed pink. “Yeah, there’s a group of ten year old girls who flirt with me all the time.”
“Ha, I bet you love it.”
Hunter gave a dismissive gesture.
Suddenly it sounded like a herd of elephants had stormed the house, as four guys from the swim team, juniors and seniors, pounded down the stairs.
“Hey, Wendell!” said one of the guys. “You didn’t think you could have a party without inviting your old buddy Tyler, did you?”
Hunter stood up laughing, his face turning pink. “Hey, how did y’all find out I was having people over? My parents just said I could have a few people.”
“Word travels, my man. Word travels,” Tyler said. He was carrying a tray with rows of tiny paper cups filled with what looked like green Jell-O. “And we all know no party is complete without …”
“Jell-O shots!” chorused the guys. Tyler put the tray down on the bar, and each of the upperclassmen took one of the small paper cups and downed the contents.
Hunter was laughing, but it seemed like he was embarrassed.
Tyler picked up a paper cup and held it out to Hunter with great ceremony.
“For you, my host with the most.”
Hunter hesitated.
Tyler leaned close to Hunter. “Who’s been your big brother on the team this whole year?”
“You have,” said Hunter.
“Who took you under my wing and showed you the ropes?”
“You did.”
“Who’s had your back?”
“You have.”
“Nothing matters when you’re on the block except one thing. And what’s that one thing?”
“Winning,” said Hunter.
“That’s right. Have a shot.”
Hunter took one of the cups from Tyler and downed its contents.
“All right!” yelled all the guys.
Hunter kind of laughed.
“And who is this lovely young lady that you appear to be conversing with?” asked Tyler.
“Just a friend of mine. Stephanie.”
For some reason I wished Hunter hadn’t told them my name.
“Have a Jell-O shot, Stephanie,” said Tyler. “Allow me.” He picked one up and held it out to me as if he were someone’s butler, and I was an aristocratic lady.
“Uh, no, thanks,” I said, and kind of giggled, but my chest started to feel tight.
“Oh, come on. Look how small they are. Teeny tiny. Not a big deal at all.”
“That’s okay,” I said. My face felt hot.
“She doesn’t want one,” Hunter said.
“I made these myself,” said Tyler, with mock huffiness. “Are you going to insult me by refusing to even try one?”
Hunter started laughing. “Cut it out!” he told Tyler. “Stephanie, you don’t have to have one.”
“If she doesn’t have one, then you need to have another one,” said Tyler.
Hunter glared at him, then broke out laughing again. “One more.” All the guys cheered and Tyler clapped him on the back.
What was Hunter doing?
“Hunter,” I said. “Weren’t you going to drive me home?”
“He can still drive,” Tyler said quickly. “He only had two.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Hunter said.
I didn’t know what to do. I realized that since Colleen had left I really didn’t know anyone else here other than Hunter. I knew the names of the girls on the JV soccer team, but they didn’t know me. How could I have let this happen?
Hunter and the other guys from the swim team had now all put on goggles and were singing some song together from Finding Nemo that they always sang before a meet. I went out the sliding door to the outdoor patio, where there was a hammock hanging from the porch above. I crawled into the hammock.
Hunter had been so nice to talk to. Then those guys showed up and he was trying to impress them, and he totally changed.
Why had I stayed?
And then Daddy’s ringtone started up on my phone.
I couldn’t pick up. I couldn’t tell Daddy where I was. I couldn’t tell him I’d come to a party without permission and didn’t have a ride home. He was up in the mountains with Jon and Olivia anyway, what could he do? I let voicemail take the call
Somehow I had to get out of here.
My mind raced. I couldn’t ask Colleen’s parents to come back for me. I couldn’t call Matt. He’d lost his license. There was only one person I could call.