The street in front of Maggie’s house was lined with cars, and as Dylan looked for a spot, a small group of people went up the sidewalk to her house.
“It’s gonna be crowded,” Dylan said.
“You have to at least give it a try, please,” Aiden said. “When was the last time you went to a party?” Aiden pressed his lips together, suddenly not wanting an answer. It had taken a good half hour of convincing to get Dylan to come, and the tipping point was Aiden pointing out that Dylan was the only one with a car. The night was too cold to walk, and being driven by his parents would just be uncomfortable.
So for Aiden’s sake, Dylan had agreed. Aiden had figured out that if he framed it as a favor, he could get Dylan to do almost anything. Aiden felt guilty about using that leverage, but he really wanted Dylan to come with him.
Because otherwise Aiden would arrive with just Tiago, and that felt too much like a date. Not that anyone would know it was more than two friends going to a party together. Everyone knew they were friends, and Aiden’s parents giving Tiago a ride wouldn’t be that unusual. But Aiden would know, and he was afraid something would show on his face or he would say something that gave him away.
With all three of them going together, it was nothing more than a group of guy friends going to a birthday party.
A stormy look crossed Dylan’s face. “Mom used to throw me birthday parties. A few people showed up when I was really little, but then they stopped coming. And I never got invited anywhere.”
Oh, crap. Aiden had brought up bad memories. No wonder Dylan had been reluctant to go. “Sorry.” Aiden tried to change the mood. “You should throw one this year. I’d show up, and Tiago. I bet Maggie would come, and Hanna. Uh, well, if her parents let her.”
“I don’t need a party. I still get presents, and that’s all that matters.” It didn’t look like he believed that. “I got this last year, and I’m pretty freaking thrilled about that.” He patted the dashboard.
“Um, do we have to bring a present?” Tiago asked. “Because I kind of… didn’t.”
“Looks like a ton of people showed up. I don’t think she’s even gonna notice,” Dylan said.
Tiago didn’t have anything that the wardens or his guardian hadn’t given him, so it made sense that he might not have enough money to buy a present. But Dylan didn’t have that excuse.
“Did you get her something?” Aiden asked.
Dylan smiled and snorted in amusement as he found an empty spot. “Yeah. When I mentioned to Mom that I was going, she made me go to the store and get something.”
The choice of stores here was rather limited. It wasn’t like they could pop over to a chain store to grab something. All Shadow Valley had was local stores, although anyone who was non-supernatural or certified could make the hour-and-a-half trek to the closest town.
Aiden had gone around the few local stores with his allowance plus some extra cash from his parents and finally found a cute cat T-shirt he was sure Maggie would like.
They got out and went up to the front door. Maggie’s dad answered the door and welcomed them in. There would definitely be no alcohol at this party, and Aiden was fine with that. He’d been able to tell his parents with complete honesty that this wasn’t going to be a rowdy teenage drinking party. Sometimes movies made them look fun, but more often they looked like unpleasant chaos. Even dangerous.
Maggie was in the living room, chatting with a large group of people. There were a lot of kids here. It made Aiden a little uncomfortable, and he noticed both Tiago and Dylan were sticking close to him.
Several kids looked surprised to see Dylan there, and Aiden noticed his friend’s tense expression. But then Maggie spotted them.
“Aiden! Dylan! Oh my God, you came.” She bounced over with a huge grin and gave Aiden a hug. Her shirt was pink with a grinning pink My Little Pony on it and glittering letters that spelled out I Love Parties!
“And Tiago. I’m so glad to see you.” Maggie wisely didn’t try to hug either of his friends.
Aiden waited with a pounding heart to see if Maggie would say anything, do anything, to give away that he and Tiago were dating. But all she did was smile at Tiago and then turn that same smile on Dylan.
Her eyes widened and she gasped. “Oh my God, you got me a present.” She shifted as if she was about to raise her arms and go for a hug, but she stopped. “Thank you so much.”
“Uh, yeah.” Dylan held it out to her as if he couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.
“You can put it on the table in the dining room. We’re doing presents in half an hour.” She squealed and put a hand to her chest. “I still can’t believe you came.” She turned and gave Aiden another hug as if he were a Dylan substitute. “There’s pizza and pop and snacks in the kitchen. Go help yourselves.”
Dylan seemed happy to retreat, and Aiden and Tiago followed him. Aiden set his present on the large pile in the center of the kitchen table.
“Wow, she’s really popular,” Tiago said.
Dylan slid his package onto the table. “See, I told you she wouldn’t notice that you didn’t get her one.”
As they turned to step into the kitchen, Dylan almost ran into Hanna. He took a quick step back, and they blinked at each other.
“Oh, hi,” he said.
“Hi.” She gave him a shy smile and looked over. “Hi, Aiden.”
“Hi.” Aiden had tried to maintain their friendship but with little success. She seemed preoccupied with her new pack, and while Dylan missed her, he was uncomfortable around her, so Aiden didn’t push for all of them to eat lunch together.
Standing slightly behind her and pressed into her side was the ghoul boy, Carter. He always sat close to her at lunch, and there was a lot of touching between them, but it didn’t seem to be an attraction-type thing. There was no kissing or googly eyes. It must be a pack thing. “Hi,” Carter said, not looking directly at Dylan or Aiden.
“I’m—” “I—” Dylan and Hanna said at the same time.
She laughed. “I’m surprised to see you here. I didn’t think you went to parties.”
“I don’t,” Dylan said.
“I dragged him along,” Aiden told her.
Hanna smiled. “Now that I can believe.”
“I didn’t think you’d be here either,” Dylan said.
Her smile widened and her eyes lit up. Leaning closer, she stage-whispered, “I snuck out the window.”
“Damn.” Dylan looked impressed.
“Wow.” When Aiden had first met Hanna, she couldn’t even walk away from her abusive boyfriend. She’d broken up with Aiden because her parents told her to. But her confidence had grown, and being with her new pack had given her quite a boost.
The selfish part of Aiden wished he had been the one to help her get this strong. He was happy for her though.
Tiago chuckled. “I’ve done that more than a few times.”
That made Aiden think of his offer to sneak over to Tiago’s house and guard him while he slept. So far Tiago hadn’t taken him up on it, and there had been no further sign of his parents.
They made small talk for another few minutes before going their separate ways. Dylan, Aiden, and Tiago loaded their plates with pizza and snacks. Then Aiden ran interference so Dylan wouldn’t intimidate anyone out of the few available seats.
The two kids on the couch offered to leave, but Aiden asked them to squeeze over instead. Dylan and Aiden took the remaining space while Tiago sat on the floor.
The other side of the living room had been cleared for dancing. As pop music thumped from the stereo, Aiden ate his pizza and watched the kids dance. He wondered what it would feel like to dance with Tiago. Not even a slow dance or a sexy dance, just for fun. But he couldn’t dance with another boy.
Tiago was sitting a little too close to his leg, almost leaning on it, and Aiden considered asking him to move. But was anyone paying attention to them? There were a lot of kids in the house and not much room. People would just think they were sitting close due to necessity, right?
Dylan is squishing me into the armrest, and I’m not worried about people seeing that. Aiden scolded himself for being paranoid again.
Soon Maggie called everyone into the dining room so they could watch her open presents. After that she blew out the candles on her huge cake and then passed out slices. When Aiden looked around after getting his piece, Dylan was nowhere to be seen.