Page 51 of When You're Home
“What are you jackasses doing out here?” she called out. She should be annoyed because they had woken her up, but they were both wearing the biggest little-boy-grins on their faces. They were clearly proud of their efforts to draw her out of the house.
“Tori! Baby! You’re alive!!” Jake exclaimed instead of answering her question. He spun around once for emphasis. She was surprised he could pull that off without swaying.
“I’m alive. Why wouldn’t I be?” She stopped five feet in front of them and crossed her arms over her chest. She was wearinga pair of leggings and an Archway sweatshirt, but the late March air was still chilly without a real coat.
“Tori!” Jake held his hands in front of his face, repeating her name again. “No onecan get a hold of you. Not me. Not Rhett. Not even Cory or Lia!! We volunteered to come over here on a recon mission,” he declared, ribbing the guy standing next to him.
Tori rolled her eyes, then turned her attention to his companion. He was taller than Jake and extremely good looking. He had broad shoulders and an unseasonably dark tan. A mess of blond curls crowned his head, and even in the dark, she could tell he had deep-blue swimming pools for eyes. The stranger returned her gaze, cocking his head slightly and smirking. Of course he had perfectly straight white teeth behind his full lips.
“Did you ever think I turned my phone off because I didn’t want anyone to get a hold of me?” she replied to Jake before turning back to his friend. “Do I know you?” she asked, biting down on her lip as she continued to size him up. She was sure she recognized him from somewhere.
“I went to Arch, too,” the stranger replied, pointing at the logo on her sweatshirt.
“Oh, no, I didn’t go to Archway Prep. I went to Hampton High. I just…”
“Fielding Haas,” the man interrupted, outstretching his hand to her. Tori took two steps forward and shook it. “But my friends call me Field,” he added as their hands touched. “And you’re Victoria Thompson, which I only know because I’ve been down here screaming your name for the last ten minutes with this jackass.”
“You can call me Tori,” she corrected him. “Haas…” she repeated his name out loud as she finally placed him. “Oh, that’s right. You played lacrosse with Rhett.”
“Close. That was my brother, Dempsey,” Fielding replied with a smile. “I played hockey. But we both graduated with Wheeler.”
No one said anything for a few beats, then Jake broke the silence.
“Are you going to change first?”
“What makes you think I’m going over there?” she shot back.
“Because it’s a party, Tori. A Jake and Rhett Party. And you know damn well this may be one of the last times we get to do this,” he stated matter-of-factly.
She heard the melancholy and nostalgia in his justification. He was right. Rhett would be moving to Virginia in less than two months. She almost let herself consider the invitation before snapping back to reality.
“Jake, I can’t. Today was a mess. Things aren’t good right now,” she said into the ground. She glanced up at him and met his eyes, silently imploring him to take pity on the situation and leave her alone.
“Tori!! PLEASE! It's not a party without you!” he begged. “You’re breaking my heart, baby!”
Tori rolled her eyes. Jake’s declaration couldn’t be further from the truth. She rarely drank and she never smoked. She spent most of her time at their notorious Jake and Rhett Parties following everyone around and cleaning up after them. Still, it was sweet that he wanted her there tonight.
“Is she over there?” Tori asked softly, directing her question at Jake while trying to ignore Fielding’s puzzled expression.
“Yeah, Queen Buzzkill is over there. She was asleep when we all arrived, but I guess we were too loud, so now she’s pouting in the living room. She’s hungover from all the Bloody Marys she pounded this afternoon, and she refuses to go in the hot tub even though Rhett told her she could borrow a bathing suit from Maddie.”
Tori physically recoiled at the idea of coming face to face with Chandler. It wasn’t going to happen. She needed to get these guys out of her yard so she could crawl back into bed.
“What’s wrong?” Fielding asked sincerely. “Do you not like Wheeler’s girlfriend or something?”
Wheeler’s girlfriend.
Tori’s expression hardened at his word choice. It stood to reason that Fielding had just met Chandler tonight. The fact that he knew her relationship status meant that Rhett had kept up with his charade exactly as planned. He was introducing Chandler as his girlfriend. Even after Tori had made it clear how painful and disrespectful it was. Even after she broke down at the idea of him trying to save face in front of all their friends. Even though she begged him not to do it this way.
Fury replaced reluctance, and revenge trumped trepidation as she reconsidered her options. Maybe shecouldcrash the party. A sly smile crept on her face as she acknowledged the itch to do something reckless. She may have broken down earlier in the walk-in cooler at Clinton’s, but she refused to stay broken.
“Please come over,” Fielding urged, pulling her out of her own thoughts. “I’ve never been to one of these parties, and it sounds like I’m not going to get the full experience unless you’re there.”
Oh, this guy was good. He was smooth and charming, and she knew damn well that Rhett would be fuming the moment he saw the way Fielding looked at her. She could work with this.
Jake must have sensed her fading hesitation. “I’ll be your buffer if you come over. You won’t even know she’s there,” he promised.
Tori closed her eyes and let out a long exhale, already disappointed in herself for what she was about to do. Maybe it was the beer from earlier, or maybe it was her desire to hurt Rhett as deeply as he had hurt her today.
