Page 2 of Gather the Storm

Plus, St. Andrew’s was a dump. Or so I’d heard.

“You can’t leeeeave!” Sarai said. “It’s barely midnight.”

“Exactly,” I shouted over the music. I always had fun hanging with Cassie and Sarai, but I would have enjoyed a girl’s night in more, or even a solo binge read at home. “Have you seen Blake?”

Sarai bobbed to the music, scanning the crowd — she either hadn’t heard me or was too far gone to pay attention — but Cassie shook her head. “Not since you guys got here. I saw the other three a while ago though.”

I looked across the room to where Jace, Wolf, and Otis had been standing — Blake couldn’t be far — but they were gone.

I leaned in a little so Cassie and Sarai could hear me. “I’m going to check the kitchen.”

I wished for the millionth time that I was old enough to drive, but alas, I was only fifteen and Blake was my ride.

“Text us when you get home!” Cassie called after me.

I nodded and started through the crowd of bodies packed into Troy Morton’s house. He was on Blackwell’s football team and apparently his parents were in Bermuda, which accounted for the hundred people he’d packed into the house and the metric fuck ton of booze circulating through the place, to say nothing of the more illicit substances that were always on offer at a Blackwell party.

The kitchen was large and modern, with gleaming white cabinets and stainless steel appliances. Several small groups were standing around, leaning against the cabinets and sitting on the granite countertops, talking and flirting and giving each other shit.

“Anybody seen Blake?” I asked.

Kai Chun, a kid I’d known since first grade and who was now in my freshman science class, shook his head.

“What about the other three?” I didn’t have to name my brother’s best friends. Everyone knew they traveled in a pack.

“They were here a while ago,” Madison, a pretty redhead from my gym class, said.

Great. I was going to have to search the whole place.

“Thanks,” I said, leaving the kitchen.

I headed for the bathroom down the hall — I had to pee, and who knew how long this would take — and was relieved to see the door open. Usually there was a line for the bathroom at a house party.

I turned on the light and shut the door, then locked it for good measure.

Dammit. I was tired and annoyed. I wanted to go home and I was trapped here because I couldn’t find Blake.

I went to the bathroom and washed my hands, staring at my reflection in the mirror over the sink. My brown hair was thick and long and I knew my eyes were an unusual shade of blue — I’d gotten them from my mom, and everyone always said that she’d had violet eyes — but that was where my memorable qualities ended.

The freckles on my nose were hidden under makeup and the rest of my face was perfectly bland in its symmetry.

No wonder Blake’s friends didn’t give me the time of day — I was about as ordinary as ordinary got.

I dried my hands on a damp hand towel and adjusted my strapless dress. I was always adjusting my clothes when I was out, mostly because of my boobs, which were annoyingly huge. I’d heard less endowed girls lament their washboard chests, but honestly, they didn’t know what a pain in the ass big tits could be.

I took a deep breath, gathering my resolve. I just needed to find Blake. He would be annoyed I wanted to leave early —especially since he hadn’t wanted to bring me in the first place — but that was nothing new.

Blake was always annoyed by me. He would still take me home if I asked.

I searched the second floor of the house, hoping I wouldn’t find Blake banging some girl in one of the upstairs bedrooms (gross), then the first floor again, just to be sure.

But I didn’t find him — or Jace, Wolf, and Otis.

By the time I shut the door to the house and headed for the fire pit outside, I was super annoyed.

Where the fuck was Blake?

And where were Jace, Wolf, and Otis?

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