Winter Untold (Summer Unplugged)

by Sparling, Amy

  “Thanks,” Becca says with a smile. “I talked to Chase like four times at school this week so I’m hoping he comes up to talk to me tonight.”

  My eyes roll around my head in an accidental slip of self-control. I can’t help but roll my eyes, and I really wish I could, because Becca gives me a death glare. “Why are you rolling your eyes?”

  “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up about Chase when he told me very clearly that he doesn’t want a girlfriend.”

  “Right,” she says with a roll of her eyes this time. “That hasn’t stopped us before, and it won’t stop us now.”

  The party isn’t so bad. Usually these things have too many people packed in too small of a house, music blasting so loud you can’t hear anything, and very very high chances of getting beer spilled all over your clothes. Harvey’s party is the complete opposite of that. His parents’ house is a massive two-story McMansion that sits on several acres with a pool in the back yard and a covered patio that’s probably bigger than the whole first floor of my house.

  The music is kept at a reasonable volume, and I make it all the way from the kitchen, where I grab a Coke instead of a beer, to the back patio without a single person spilling anything on me. Becca asks me to crack open the pull tab on her beer so she doesn’t ruin her manicured nails.

  We stand near an unoccupied foosball table and I set my drink on it as I open her beer for her. “How many do you think I could drink and still regain my dignity?” she asks as she checks the label on the back of the can. Her face glows pink from the neon bar signs on the walls.

  “I don’t think the label is going to tell you that,” I say, which earns me the stink eye from Becca. “I can usually drink three before I become a total lunatic.”

  She shrugs. “Three it is. I need to chug this before we run into you-know-who.”

  “Voldemort?” The male voice is unexpected; Becca and I both jump as Chase walks up from the other side of the foosball table. Chase takes a sip from his drink—also a Coke—and smiles. “I wasn’t aware that you-know-who was invited tonight.”

  Becca bursts into girlish giggles as if she were drunk already. Looks like she got her wish of Chase coming up to talk to her. Unfortunately, he’s looking at me.

  “When girls say ‘you-know-who’ they aren’t talking about Harry Potter,” I say. “They’re talking about a guy.”

  “Oh really?” Chase asks enthusiastically.

  Becca gives me a quizzical look, probably wondering if I’m about to rat out her secret. I just shrug. “Duh.”

  Chase looks at Becca now and she takes a long sip from her beer. “Well, good luck. I hope you-know-who shows up and sweeps you off your feet. Or, you know, whatever girls want guys to do.”

  “I don’t need luck,” Becca says with a sudden burst of confidence. “Want to play foosball?”

  Chase obliges and I lean against the wall nearest them, finishing my Coke and getting another. Staying sober at a party where nearly everyone else is drinking is a new experience for me. For one, everyone isn’t as hilarious as they seem when you’re drunk. Mostly everyone just looks like an idiot.

  Chase beats Becca for the third time at the game of foosball, but she isn’t the least bit upset about it. She calls for a rematch, again, and starts in on her forth beer. Looks like I’ll be driving us home tonight.

  My phone rings around nine p.m. and I almost miss the sound of Jace’s ringtone over the music thumping from the surround sound speakers on the patio. I pull my phone out of my back pocket and realize that I did miss his call—three times.

  “Hello?” I answer, knowing I won’t be able to hear him over the loud party noise. The decibel level seems to be a lot higher than when we first arrived. “Hold on a sec, I need to get somewhere quiet.”

  I push my way around groups of people and into a spare bedroom so I can get some privacy. Unlike in the movies, there’s no one making out in here. “Jace?” I say into my cell phone, now that I can hear him.

  “Hey, sweetheart.” His voice sends a warm shiver down my spine. Oh how I’ve missed his deep voice and his sexy body and his warm, strong hands.

  “I miss you,” I find myself saying instead of hello.

  “I miss you more,” he says.

  “Impossible!” I laugh. “You’re traveling around having all your meals paid for…I’m stuck here in Texas. You can’t possibly miss me more than I miss you.”

  “I don’t know about that… it sounded like you were having some fun yourself just now.”

  “Ugh, if you only knew. I’m at this stupid party with Becca and she’s drunk so I get to be her babysitter and watch her try to make out with a guy who has no interest in her.”

  Jace laughs. “That sounds like Becca.”

  We talk some more about the party and it amazes me how he doesn’t once say anything that would hint to him being jealous that I’m at a party without him. Every other guy I’ve known would get really pissed if I went to a party alone, but not Jace. He really is freaking amazing. I don’t deserve him one bit.

  We talk for half an hour and Jace catches me up on the meetings he had today with his new employers. They’re offering him a lot of money to stay on board and continue doing training and promo activities for him, with the promise that he will be able to race for them in the future. He’s super excited about it and I am too, if only for him.

  “You’re a little quiet,” he says after a while.

  “I’m just thinking,” I say, leaning my back against the wall in someone else’s house. “I’m so happy for you but I’m going to miss you a lot.”

  “It won’t be like this forever,” he says. “I promise. Oh! Crap, I almost forgot to tell you.” His voice gets really excited and my heart skips a beat as I wait to hear what he has to say. “I think there’s a ninety percent chance that I’ll make it down there for the Winter Festival.”

  “Really?” I practically break my cell phone with how hard I squeeze it. “I’m so excited!”

  “It’s not officially official, but it’s mostly official.”

  “OhmygodIloveyousomuch.”

  Jace laughs. “I love you more.”

  I hang up the phone feeling as though I’m floating on cloud nine. When I open the door to the empty bedroom and step into the hallway, someone whooshes past me, making me press back into the wall.

  “There you are.”

  I glance around, thinking surely he’s talking to someone else. Why would Chase be wondering where I am? He pokes me in the shoulder with his index finger. “I’ve looked everywhere for you.”

  The beer on his breath hits me now. Guess he stopped drinking Cokes a while ago. I put on a fake smile. “I was in the last place you looked. What’s up? Where’s Becca?”

  He shrugs and flashes me a smile. “She’s making out with some guy. I don’t care though. I want to see you.”

  Alarms go off in mind. This is not good. “I need to find Becca,” I hear myself saying. Something flashes in Chase’s eyes now, a look of recognition as if he suddenly sobered up enough to realize that he’s been hovering in my personal space, making flirty eyes with me. He blinks, and the look is gone. Replaced with a drunken smile again.

  “So,” he says, poking me in the shoulder again as he takes a step closer to me. We’re only inches apart now, close enough for me to nuzzle against his chest if I wanted to. I definitely don’t want to. “I think you’re cute.”

  “Um, thanks,” I say, still trying to keep my smile, still trying to stay nice for the sake of not making things weird.

  “We should hang out.”

  Becca bursts into the hallway now, her hair all disheveled. She looks positively pissed off. “Bayleigh!” she yells, looking into the living room and then back down the hall, where our eyes meet. “We need to get out of here,” she says, stomping down the hallway and grabbing my arm without even glancing at Chase. “Now.”

  Chapter 7

  It’s funny how when life gets crazy, the normal mundane thi
ngs keep going as if nothing happened. Like school on Monday morning. Becca drives me to school, not saying a word about last Friday where she drunkenly made out with some guy only to have her ex-boyfriend stumble onto the scene and punch the poor guy in the face.

  In first period yearbook class, Chase walks in just before the bell rings and slides into his chair which is next to mine. He gives me the same nod hello like he does every day, and doesn’t mention or even hint to whatever weirdness happened between us last Friday. Everything goes on normally, as if last Friday didn’t happen. As if I am the only person who remembers it.

  So, despite the craziness, everything is basically normal. Except that when lunch comes and goes, I still haven’t gotten any texts from Jace…but I guess that’s normal now, too. I hardly ever hear from him anymore.

  I’m checking my cell phone for messages as I walk down the long hallway that leads to the parking lot after school. As expected, there’s nothing from my boyfriend.

  Someone taps me on the shoulder and I glance over to see Chase giving me a sheepish grin and he falls into step with me. “Hey.”

  “Hello,” I say, turning back to my cell phone.

  “Look, I’m sorry about last Friday. I was drunk and an idiot. I don’t even remember what I said.”

  “Then why are you apologizing?” I ask, lifting an eyebrow. I hoped he had forgotten about calling me cute, but he’s probably just pretending he did.

  “Because the only thing I do remember is the look you gave me in the hallway.”

  “What kind of look was that?”

  “He stares at the ground as he walks. “A look like I’m a fucking asshole. So I want to apologize.”

  “Ah,” I say as the moments of silence grow increasingly awkward. “Well, thanks.”

  “Winter Festival in one week,” he says, hooking his thumbs around his backpack straps. “I think we should go together since you know all about it and I’m still the weirdo out-of-place new guy. I can drive us.”

  I want to tell him that I can’t ride with him because I’ll be with my boyfriend. But I can’t say the words because then I’d end up jinxing myself and Jace won’t be able to make it. Or worse, he’ll call and break up with me and then I won’t even have a boyfriend for the festival. Luckily, I don’t have to say anything at all because Becca smashes into my other shoulder one second later.

  “Looks like I don’t have to take your ass home today,” she says, giving me a silly eyebrow wiggle.

  “What do you mean by that?” I ask right as I look up at the parking lot, toward the second row where Becca’s car is parked. “Oh, my god…” I murmur as the world’s biggest, goofiest grin spreads across my face. I think Becca says something but I don’t notice whatever it is. All I can focus on is my boyfriend’s big ass truck, parked directly behind her car, and my boyfriend, looking handsome as hell in dark jeans and a black leather jacket, staring straight at me.

  I break into a sprint and cross the parking lot, leaving Chase and Becca in my wake. Jace gives me his silly smirk, trying to play it cool when I know he’s just as excited as I am. He opens his arms and I dive into them, wrapping my hands tightly around his neck as I feel my feet lift off the ground.

  His breath is warm against my neck, a huge contrast to the cold air outside. “I missed you, baby,” he says. Chills run down my neck and prickle across my spine.

  “I missed you too,” I say, or rather, try to say. My words are cut off by his kiss—his lips are warm and smell slightly of minty lip balm.

  “You two have fun,” Becca calls out sarcastically as she taps her foot while waiting at her car door. She can’t move until Jace drives his truck out of her way.

  “Oh we will,” Jace calls back, opening the passenger door for me.

  I turn to wave goodbye to Becca, but see Chase instead. “See ya,” he says with a small smile, but he isn’t fooling me. He had no idea I had a boyfriend.

  And I’m an idiot for not realizing that until now.

  Chapter 8

  Mom and her boyfriend take Bentley to dinner and to see a movie, leaving the house completely empty for a few hours. I pounce on Jace as soon as they leave the house, sliding my fingers up his chest and desperately wanting to leave the living room in favor of my bedroom. Preferably, my bed.

  Jace pulls away after a minute of kissing. “I want to finish this, trust me I do, but can we get some food first?”

  I frown, drawing my eyebrows together in a puppy face. “Food is more important than making out with me?”

  “Never,” he says, pulling my forehead to his lips. “I’m just so damn hungry. I’ve been on a plane all day and unsalted peanuts can only hold me over for so long.”

  I roll my eyes. “Okay, but I want Italian.”

  “Pizza?” he asks with a smile.

  I grab my purse off the couch. “Duh.”

  Nick’s Pizza has the most amazing giant pizza slices. They really are giant in that you pretty much have to eat them with a knife and fork. One slice is served on a metal plate which is actually just a large pizza pan. Jace always orders two slices and I always order one, which extra marinara sauce because Jace doesn’t eat his crusts and I eat them for him.

  Having a routine like this really means a lot when our relationship has been less than routine lately. We sit on opposite sides of a booth in the back corner of the bistro. Jace tells me stories about idiots on the plane ride and how he saw two business men fight over an outlet in the airport.

  “You sure have a lot to say about the airports,” I say, dipping a piece of crust into the marinara sauce. “Funny how you have nothing to say about those crazy parties you go to.”

  “They aren’t crazy,” he says, aiming his fork at me. “Plus, you act like partying is my job. It’s not, ya know. I spend most of my day covered in sweat and exhaust fumes out on the track.”

  I want to say something snarky or mean, or comment on the stupid girls at those stupid parties, but I hold off and just try to enjoy the moment with my boyfriend. There’s plenty of time to be mad at him when he isn’t here.

  The way he stares at me now makes me wonder if he’s reading my mind.

  “I love you,” he says.

  “I love you,” I say back with a mouth full of food.

  He smiles as he watches me, finally saying, “It felt like you hated me the last week or so. I don’t know if it’s the distance or what, but I’ve been really worried about us for the last few days. Then I get to see you in person and everything feels fine.”

  I nod. “I kind of feel the same way.”

  “What do you mean by that?” he asks, leaning in.

  “I mean sometimes I kind of hate you when you’re not here,” I say in a lighthearted but still serious way. He lifts an eyebrow. “Is it because of the parties?” he asks.

  I shouldn’t even have to justify that dumbass question with an answer, but I do anyway. “Yes.”

  He reaches across the table and grabs my hands, looking me in the eyes. “I promise I will not attend another after party without you.”

  “Babe…” I say, glancing at the table. “You don’t have to do that. Now I feel bad.”

  “Don’t. You’re my girl and I’m going to do what it takes to make you happy.”

  A weird mix of extreme satisfaction and overwhelming guilt flow into me. His promise to me is definitely what I want, but why do I feel so damned bad about it?

  My eyes close as Jace kisses a trail down my neck. We’re back at my house and my mom and brother haven’t returned yet, so we’ve left my bedroom door open to hear them when they get back. Jace’s lips kiss my collar bone and chills run down my arms. I grab his head and pull it to me in a hug. Making out on the sly with the looming knowledge that the front door will open at any second, ruining our private time, is no fun. Well, it’s a little bit fun.

  But still. “You’re acting weird,” I tell him as I draw light circles across his scalp with my nails. He slides his hands around my waist and locks his fingers
together behind my back.

  “You know me too well,” he whispers.

  “So what’s going on?” I ask, trying not to sound so disappointed. “You’re leaving soon, aren’t you?”

  He sighs. “At midnight.”

  “Ugh,” I groan. “I was hoping you’d at least get to spend the night like last time.”

  Jace pulls back and adjusts himself on my bed, resting his head against my headboard and pulling me into his lap. “There’s some good news though.”

  I cross my arms defiantly. “How could there possibly be good news?”

  “I was thinking you could drive me to the airport then just take my truck home with you. That way you could keep it until I get back next week. No more bumming rides with Becca.”

  Or Chase, I think. Countless possibilities float across my mind…if I had his truck for a week, I could drive myself to and from school, the mall, the bookstore. Anywhere I wanted. I wouldn’t have to beg Mom for her keys or bribe Becca to take me somewhere she doesn’t want to go. A whole week of freedom…

  “Wait, you’re going to be gone a week?”

  He laughs. “Yeah, but before you figured that out, you looked pretty happy.”

  “I am,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “I’m excited. I can’t believe you’re trusting me to drive your truck.”

  His eyebrows narrow. “Well… I trusted you until you said that…”

  I give him a playful slap and then immediately regret it because he pins me to the bed and tickles my ribcage in the exactly the most ticklish spot. I lash out in laughter, unable to stop the giggles and squirming. I hate him so much some times. But in the best possible way.

  The long, romantic goodbye I had pictured on our drive up to the airport is ruined the moment Jace and I walk into the terminal. Two women who might be old enough to be his mother come rushing up to him with the typical star-struck face I’ve come to recognize lately.

  Jace slowly lets my hand fall from his as he goes in to return the hug the first woman throws at him without even asking. Talk about an invasion of his personal space. Plus her perfume smells like she went to a cheap perfume kiosk and sampled every bottle.