Party Games

by Whitney Lyles

  He shrugged. “Good question.”

  They both cracked up when they looked at his feet. A brief moment of silence followed before Ian’s eyes locked on hers. For a moment she wondered if she had something on her face. She hadn’t expected him to lean toward her. His lips meeting hers happened quickly, but gently. He tasted warm and smooth. His kiss felt like the soft glow of a candle, drawing her in. Every nerve in her body seemed to melt, and she suddenly felt an urge to feel more of him. Somewhere inside her, she had this gnawing sense that what she was doing was wrong, but she didn’t let it stop her. She just wanted more of that warm, soft feeling.

  “Bossy” shattered the moment like a bullet, and she suddenly realized why she’d had that gnawing sense that something was wrong. Making out with her client’s date? It couldn’t get any worse. She pulled away from him first.

  “Who’s that?” He chuckled. “Your mom?”

  Obviously, her mother seemed a little bossy. But that came as no surprise. She was the head honcho at almost every event Ian had been to. “Er…uh…no…it’s just a client.” One that happens to be your date. And she happens to be madly in love with you. A client whose entire state of happiness hinges on whether this party goes over well. And right now, one of the biggest ingredients in her happiness is you.

  “That’s funny.”

  “What?”

  He pointed to her phone. “That you have that song programmed for a client.”

  “Oh, yeah.” She tried to chuckle.

  “Now come back here,” he said affectionately as he leaned closer. She was dying to kiss him again. Dying. It felt so perfect, and he was so warm. She could stay there with him forever. Instead, she jumped from the wall and grabbed her backpack. Her heart was racing. This was all happening way too fast. She’d just made out with the guy she’d had a crush on all summer, who also happened to be the biggest and most demanding client’s date to the biggest event of her life. Aside from being totally unprofessional, she couldn’t imagine the devastation that could result from what she’d just done. What if Dakota found out? What if her mother found out? What if anyone found out?

  “Um, I think I better head home.” she said. “I have to get up early tomorrow, and…well, it’s late.”

  “It’s barely eight.” He slid off the wall. “Is everything okay?”

  “Um…yeah.”

  Her mind raced. How was she going to fix this? Her heart was dying to fall into his warm embrace again, but she couldn’t. Her head was screaming for her to stop. She had to think of business first. She had to blow him off, convince him that Dakota was the right girl for him. He was going to the party with her. He’d even committed to it himself. And what was that all about? Maybe he was a jerk? Was he off kissing Dakota too? What the hell was he doing? Two-timing both of them?

  “Listen, I know that you and Dakota have this whole thing planned for her party…”

  He looked puzzled, but she continued talking. “And the last thing I want to do is get in the middle of that. Do you think it’s really fair after the commitment you’ve made to her to be doing this? I think it’s best that we totally forget about what just happened, okay?”

  An ocean breeze blew his bangs over his forehead. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you’re going to Dakota’s party with her, and if she found out about this, it would be…catastrophic…to, well, everything. I’m the party planner. Not the party pooper.” She knew she sounded like such a dork, and she wished she could take back all her words.

  “Yeah, I’m going to Dakota’s party. But I’m not going with her.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Everyone. You’re her date. Aren’t you?”

  He shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. Look, she asked me to come to her party. The only reason I said yes was because I thought you were going to be there.”

  Her heart skipped a beat.

  “Really?” She almost leaned in and kissed him again. “I mean…you have to be her date. She thinks you’re her date. She thinks you’re going with her.”

  “I don’t have to do anything. And I don’t want to go to Dakota’s party with her. She’s weird.”

  She felt torn between jumping for joy and running for dear life. She felt her heart sinking to her knees. She was thrilled that he didn’t like Dakota, but he wasn’t supposed to like her. At least not now.

  “Look, I like you,” he said. “But I’m starting to get this weird feeling that you’re just using me to go to some party so you can keep Dakota happy.”

  “No. That’s not the case! I swear!”

  “Then what is it? Because I can’t figure out what’s going on here.”

  Sara didn’t have an answer. What was she supposed to say? I like you too. But can you please put those feelings on hold until after August, when Dakota’s party is over and my mom’s kitchen is finished? Can you please dress in island castaway clothes for one night, ride in a limo with San Diego’s most annoying sixteen-year-old, then profess your feelings for me? As she tried to think of something to say, he shook his head.

  “Call me whenever you have an answer.” With that, he turned around and walked away.

  “Ian, wait!” The sound of the crashing waves muffled her voice, and he disappeared into the dark night. She held on to his hoodie. “You forgot your hoodie,” she called. He didn’t come back.

  Sixteen

  “This is so cool!” Allie screamed into the phone. “You’re so scandalous.”

  “But I don’t want to be scandalous!” Sara said. “I should’ve never gone to the beach with him. But how was I supposed to know that he was going to kiss me?”

  “Gee, let’s think about this for a minute. First, he buys your soda, then he buys you a necklace!” Her voice became louder with each sentence. “Then he basically takes you on a date!” She practically screamed the words. “What did you want him to do? Sing out his love to you onstage?”

  It was midnight. She still hadn’t even taken her nightly bath. She hadn’t even changed out of her clothes from the wedding that afternoon. She looked at his hoodie lying on her bed. Figaro was already curled up on the hood. “Cassidy told me that he was going to the party with Dakota. She was on cloud nine, blah, blah, blah. He was riding in the limo. I mean, for a minute there, I thought he was playing both of us.”

  “Well, obviously he’s not.”

  “Yeah, I know that now.” She groaned. “Why does the first guy who has ever kissed me have to be wrapped up with her?” She thought for a moment. “There’s only one thing left to do.”

  “Good. Call him and apologize. Screw Dakota and go on a double date with Shane and me!” Allie howled.

  “No. Actually, that’s not what I was thinking. I have to call and tell him to go to the party with Dakota. This can’t fall apart now. I can’t steal her date. I’m supposed to be making her party the best party ever! Not the worst! I mean, I’ve never even heard of anything like this happening. Ever. What kind of party planner am I? I’m like a party planner from Days of Our Lives. It’s like a soap opera.”

  Allie laughed. “It’s kind of funny.”

  Sara shook her head. “It’s so not funny. This is the type of thing that could ruin careers. How will my mother and I ever get hired to do another sweet sixteen if rumor has it that the party planner’s daughter steals the birthday girls’ dates?”

  Allie laughed. “I think it’s hysterical.”

  “Thanks.” Sara’s voice was flat.

  Allie quit laughing for a moment. “C’mon. Listen to yourself.”

  “What?”

  “You’re not begging him to go to the party with her. I don’t think he’s gonna go anyway at this point. I would consider Dakota and Ian a lost cause.”

  Sara thought for a moment. The whole ordeal was draining her, and she just wanted to go to bed. It had been such a long day. Ian giving her the necklace seemed like it had happened a decade ago. She could hear Gene an
d her mom splashing downstairs, and she wanted to tell them to keep it down.

  “Even if I did call Ian and apologize, and I’m just saying if, because I’m not going to, I think he would hate me at this point. He totally opened up to me, and I told him he had to go on a date with another girl. I feel like such an idiot. I am an idiot!”

  “No, you’re not. Listen. The guy really likes you. Do you think one little misunderstanding is going to suddenly squash all his feelings? Ian will get past it if you clear the air soon. Sara, you have the rest of your life to plan the best parties ever. But you’re only going to meet a guy like Ian once. Does it really matter what happens with Dakota’s party? I hate to see you walk away from such a great guy for one party. Find Dakota a different date.”

  Sara took a deep breath. Inside, she felt that Allie might be right, but her head was telling her that Allie was completely wrong. And she couldn’t get that kiss out her mind. She’d dreamed about finding a guy like Ian, and now he was here. All the time she’d spent worrying about bad breath and teeth collisions, and then her kiss with Ian felt so natural. She longed for more. Was it possible that her first kiss would be her only kiss? She didn’t know what to do.

  Seventeen

  Flames smoldered in the beach air. Sara watched as Cassidy sang along with Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” before dumping a very expensive-looking leather jacket into the bonfire. “Screw boyfriends!” she screeched.

  Several girls cheered as flames popped like fireworks and sent off sparks over the sand. Another girl, Amanda Finely, twirled toward the smoke, then launched a size 14 dress into the pit. She’d taken up running over the summer and had recently lost eight pounds. Following her was Ashley, the girl Tristan had hooked up with the night of the CD-release party. Sara watched as On the Verge’s CD flew into the flames like a Frisbee, then as the CD cover melted like molten lava inside the inferno.

  Seeing the CD made Sara’s heart ache. Was it symbolic? Was it some kind of fateful message? Was fate telling her that any kind of a relationship with Ian had turned to ashes? As much as she’d tried, Sara couldn’t feed from the crowd’s energy.

  She was barefoot, and the sand felt grainy and cool between her toes. Her hair felt as unruly as brussels sprouts in the moist ocean air. The only boys at the party were five guys they’d hired from their rival high school’s wrestling team to serve drinks topless. Jocks weren’t Sara’s type, but she couldn’t ignore their flawless bodies. Chiseled, tan chests above rough, worn blue jeans came with each soda.

  She thought about throwing the blue necklace into the pit but quickly dismissed the idea. The bottom line was that she missed Ian. She’d replayed their kiss over and over in her mind a million times. She thought of his smile and the way he’d gently put the necklace around her neck so many times that she’d practically remembered these moments to death. She didn’t want to watch anything associated with him burn. She wanted to see him. She wanted to hear his voice and his laughter and eat calzones at Luigi’s. In fact, she’d be willing to go anywhere with him if it meant that she could see him again. She’d called him twice, but he hadn’t answered or called her back. Who could blame him? She’d acted like a jerk. At this point, the damage had been done.

  Cassidy popped in next to Sara and threw her arm over her shoulder. “This party is perfect! I think we should do this every weekend!” Then she whispered gruffly in Sara’s ear. “I’m in love with the topless waiter named Brett. The one over there, serving Chelsea and Candace right now.” She squealed, “I totally think I’m going to ask him to Dakota’s party. She said I could bring a date.” Then she squeezed Sara’s arm so hard that Sara was sure there would be a bruise tomorrow. She whispered in her ear again, but the music was so loud that she practically had to scream. Sara thought she’d be deaf, too.

  “Oh, and I almost forgot. Ben, the waiter with the blond hair, asked about you! We should all go on a date! They’re so cute. Ohmigod, that would be so fun!”

  Sara smiled. “Yeah, that would be fun.” She was only being polite. Really, she was just thinking that Ben was nothing like Ian. She tried to bury her longing for Ian. She should be having fun. It was the first time Sara had actually felt a little like a guest instead of an assistant. Besides hiring the waiters and helping Cassidy purchase drinks, there hadn’t been a ton of work. Better yet, she didn’t have to play superhero at this party. No debutante or birthday girl needed to be rescued from some catastrophe. All these girls were pulling themselves out of catastrophes. Anything could go wrong and it wouldn’t matter.

  Cassidy elbowed her. “What’s wrong with you anyway? You just don’t seem like you.”

  She was the last person Sara could confide in. Anything Sara said would probably go straight back to Dakota. “Nothing. I’m just sorta tired.”

  “Ohmigod! I love this song!” Cassidy began to jump up and down as Gwen Stefani came blasting from the speakers. She tugged on Sara’s hand. “C’mon, let’s go dance. We have to dance to this one.”

  Sara didn’t have much of a choice as Cassidy dragged her toward a group of girls who were already well into the dance moves.

  “I’m not a very good dancer!” Sara yelled over the music, but Cassidy didn’t hear her. Cassidy fell into a groove as she lifted her arms and swayed her hips in sync with the beat. Sara felt self-conscious, but the music was pounding and somehow she began to move her body. At first her hips felt as stiff as knives and her feet felt like bricks as she struggled to keep up with the beat. Once she forgot about what everyone else thought, she began to move freely. And who cared what they thought, anyway? She was having fun. It felt good to move to the music and to hear the other girls’ hollers and catcalls coming down around her like rain. For most of her life, she’d been standing on the sidelines.

  Gwen Stefani finished and another upbeat song came on. There were absolutely no sad or sappy love songs allowed at this party. Each song that came on was fast paced and danceworthy. Before Sara knew it, song after song flew by. She felt like she could dance all night. She danced until she was out of breath and the back of her tank top felt damp. She finally understood why it was so hard to peel people off dance floors at the end of parties. Dancing was a blast. She wanted to go to parties like this every day. It was the first time in days that she’d taken a hiatus from thinking about Dakota and Ian.

  “I’m gonna grab a soda!” she yelled to Cassidy over the music. “You want one?”

  “Sure, I’ll come with you.”

  They were heading to a topless soda god when Sara thought she heard the subtle sound of buzzing heading in her direction. She turned to Cassidy. “Do you hear that?”

  Just as she said the words, she watched as one of Cassidy’s friends, Samantha, came skidding over the sand on the kind of scooter that the driver stands on. Sand flew like spray paint behind the back wheels. Sara knew who it belonged to. The scooter belonged to Samantha’s ex-boyfriend, Travis. Sara knew this because Travis lived two houses down from Sara and had driven the entire neighborhood insane with the scooter’s whizzing high-pitched motor. She was just shocked that the scooter could stay balanced on the sand.

  Sara hoped to God Samantha didn’t have plans to burn the scooter. It was like slow motion as she watched Samantha jump from the machine, raise it above her shoulders like a sumo wrestler might, and heave it into the fire.

  “That has GAS-O-LINE!” Sara screamed. “EVERYBODY BACK!”

  Her warning was followed by an earsplitting pop and a fireball bigger than an elephant.

  “Whoooa!” A nearby waiter watched in awe.

  “I think my eyebrows are singed,” a distant voice whined.

  Sara immediately scanned the area, looking for burn victims. Fortunately, no one needed to stop, drop, and roll. However, the entire east side of the bonfire looked as if they’d just come from a coal mine. She watched as the guests pointed to one another and laughed.

  Sara turned to Cassidy. “I’ll be back. I have wipes in my car.” Baby wipes wer
e part of Sara’s emergency kit.

  She’d just set off for her car when she felt her cell phone vibrate against her thigh. She’d tucked the phone deeply into her jeans pocket. She pulled her phone from her pocket and read the text message.

  WE NEED TO TALK ASAP. CALL ME.

  DAKOTA

  Did she know? She had to know. Was this another one of her little games? The message seemed so un-Dakota. In the past few weeks, Dakota had sent her lists of demands and concerns before insisting that Sara and Leah address all of them before calling her back. Even though it was all in writing, her tone seemed abrupt. What was with the capitals? It looked like she was yelling.

  Rather than calling Dakota back, Sara hurried to her car. She climbed into the front seat, closed the door behind her, and dialed Allie. The music from the party sounded distant while she waited for Allie to pick up.

  Pick up, Allie. C’mon, pick up, please.

  “Hey, girlie, how’s the party going?”

  “Thank God you answered. Dakota knows. She totally knows.” Sara read the text message verbatim.

  “That doesn’t mean she knows. How would she know? Do you really think Ian told her?”

  Sara thought for a moment. “No. But what if he told someone else, who then told her?”

  “Guys don’t do that. They just don’t. They’re a completely different breed. I mean, we, of course, would tell each other everything, but guys don’t kiss and tell.”

  “I guess you’re right. Who else knows besides you, Ian, and I?”

  “Call her back, then call me back.”

  She hung up with Allie. Sara’s heart pounded as she dialed Dakota’s number. Even though Allie’s thinking made sense, she was still nervous.