"Look at his face in this one," Lissa giggled while she pointed at her phone.
I laughed at the way his green face only made him look angrier at us from across the room.
"Guys," Demi groaned. "Stop, he's getting so annoyed."
I glanced at her. "Hey, I came first, remember?"
She held her hands up. "Alright, alright."
"Where's the asshat?" Demi asked, looking at the room.
I shrugged.
"Who cares?" Lissa replied.
"Uh oh," Demi murmured. "Trouble in paradise."
Lissa and I followed her gaze and there he was, clearly arguing with Lauren.
"He deserves it," I went back to scrolling through my phone.
Lissa gasped. "This song!"
Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande. Only our favorite Christmas love song.
"But—"
Lissa sent me a warning look, reaching behind me to grab a shot.
"Take it."
You know what? I would. Screw Jesse Vanderlin. Screw Olivia Wright. I threw the shot back.
"Another one," I motioned to her. Demi and Lissa grinned at each other and Lissa handed me another shot.
I winced as it went down and stuffed my phone into my pocket.
"Remember this tradition?" I asked them. We used to sing this on Lissa's fireplace every Christmas.
Lissa began singing to Demi out loud, drawing Jared's attention to us.
I noticed a few people start to watch us, but with the songwriting classes I was in, I was growing used to performing in front of groups.
Lissa held her pretend microphone to me and Jared let out a whistle.
"All I want is to have him by my side, on the 25th by the fireside, but I don't wanna a broken heart. This year I've got to be smart. Oh baby!" I sang.
They scoot closer to me and together we sang the chorus. People sang along with us and clapped and for a minute, it was a fun. It was free. Sometimes there was nothing better than a room full of drunk people, honestly.
The song ended and Jared ran up to us, sweeping Demi into an epic makeout session, forcing Lissa and I to look away in discomfort.
"Okay, get a room you two," Lissa mumbled.
I laughed and swayed to the song that came on and spot my Mom and Gerald in the corner speaking with guests. She caught me staring and she smiled, a look of pride crossing her features.
"Incoming," Lissa murmured.
Before I could ask what she meant, she was in front of me.
"Incredible," Lauren said. I blinked, suddenly afraid of what was about to happen.
Her eyes were watering and she stared me down. Lissa coughed uncomfortably, but her gaze was unwavering.
I swallowed.
"Lauren, don't," Jesse stepping in between us, blocking her from my view.
Lissa glanced at me, her eyes huge.
Lauren laughed.
"I can't believe I fell for it," she said.
"Lauren," Jesse's hand twitched, but he stayed in place.
"That," Lauren pointed at his hand. "That's the problem. You can't do it because she's behind you."
"Uh," I said, backing away from Jesse. "I should leave."
"Don't," Lauren said.
Jesse sighed as she turned and walked away. We watched her weave through the room and walk through the front door. When it closed, Lissa turned to Jesse.
"Way to go dick face, you've officially pissed everyone off."
He shot her a look. "Not now Lissa."
"I like the idea of getting this out right now," she shrugged.
"What? What do you hate me for?" he burst.
I took another step back from him.
"Hmm," she pretended to think. "How about the fact that you walked away from this gorgeous specimen?" She held her hand out to me.
I wanted a hole to open up in the ground and swallow me up. I wanted to escape.
"I'm going to leave," I said uncomfortably.
"No," Jesse said. "I am."
He stormed off, leaving Lissa and I in stunned silence.
"And you said I could never touch him," Olivia said from behind me.
We jumped and Lissa looked like she was about to pounce.
"You have something to do with this?" Lissa demanded, taking a step forward. She towered over Olivia, but Olivia didn't bat an eye.
Olivia shrugged. "I can't play with what doesn't exist."
"What the fuck?" Lissa shook her head, incredulous.
I sighed. "Let's go," I grabbed Lissa.
"Hold on," she ripped her hand out of my grip and stormed back up to Olivia.
Within a second, the sound of Lissa's hand connecting to Olivia's cheek sounded through the room. People around us froze.
"Get out."
Olivia's mouth was open in disbelief, her hand against her cheek.
"Liss," I whispered. "Calm down." Her chest was rapidly rising and she had a look on her face like I had never seen before. She was livid.
"I'm fine," she spit. She took another step toward Olivia. "If I find out you did something to him, I'll ruin you."
Olivia's eyebrow twitched up and her lips tightened into a firm line. She pushed through us and left the same way Jesse did.
I glanced at Lissa, people around us scooting away from her.
"What is going on here?" My mom urgently whispered from the behind us. "Take it outside, I'll talk to you later."
I grabbed Lissa's hand and dragged her outside onto the balcony, avoiding everyone's curious glances.
"What was that? I thought you hated Jesse," I placed my hands on my hips.
"Yeah, well, he's still one of us," she grumbled. She placed her hands on her cheeks. "I'm hot, like actually hot."
I ignored her and sat down. "You don't really think she has something do with how he's acted, do you?"
"I don't know," she said softly.
I shook my head. "How he's acted..."
"There's no excuse."
I nodded in agreement and when I looked down a dark spot caught my eye. Leaning over the rail, I could see him.
He was walking down the beach by himself.
"Don't you dare pity him," Lissa sighed.
"I'm not," I lied. Everything in me ached to chase after him, even when he didn't deserve it.
In this moment, it wasn't the side of me that liked him...it was the friendship. I wanted to go cheer him up, not because of our feelings, but because of our past, because at the end of the day we were more than us.
"Alice Dessen, I swear," Lissa warned.
"I'm not!" I turned away from Jesse's retreating figure down the beach and sighed. I wonder if he was headed to the shack.
"Hey," I looked up at Lissa. "Did you know a girl named Rae was working for Jesse now?"
She nodded and leaned up against the railing.
"Wow, I really was out of the loop."
"You avoided us," she shrugged.
"There was a lot going on," I defended.
"Right."
She sighed and sat in the chair next to me.
"You know," she began and looked up at the sky for a moment. "Jesse isn't the only one that lives here."
I met her careful gaze. "I know that," I said, confused.
"Well, you acted like Jesse was us. As if we couldn't separate from your very short relationship with him," she said.
To be honest, I hated being the one in our friend group always having to learn lessons.
"You didn't come home either," I finally said.
Her face fell. "Because I'm broke."
I laughed. "Touché."
She stood up and held her hand out to me. "Come on."
"What?"
"Let's go check on him," she jerked me into an upright position. "Make sure Olivia doesn't snatch him up."
I laughed and followed her through the door, but I would be lying if I wasn't eager to go see him.
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