Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I handed the girl a smashed and mangled box of candy hearts. She was sitting in her car with the window rolled down, probably waiting for whoever she was riding home with. I wasn't even sure if she was single, but at this point, it didn't matter. I'd been handing them out all week and I was trying to get rid of the last few I had. "Come to my party tonight," I said, pointing at the info written on the box.

"What happened to it?" she asked, holding it up by the corner and scrunching her nose. "Did it get run over by a truck?"

"That's how it's supposed to look. It's a party celebrating singleness."

Smashing and stomping a hundred candy heart boxes had been very cathartic. I knew how that sounded. How it made me come off. Bitter. Angry. This last year had been the worst of my life. But even so, I hadn't lost the tiny sliver of hope I'd been clinging to that my parents' separation would be a good thing. After all, it was still just a separation. The fact that they hadn't made it permanent was a good sign... I thought.

Having to sit through another high school Valentine's Day parade of roses today wasn't helping though. It felt like even more people had gotten them this year. And this year's poem was beyond atrocious. They rhymed fatal attraction with chemical reaction.

"Oh, you're Scarlett," she said. "The girl who throws the anti-love party. I was at Cassidy's party last year and every time she heard someone was at yours she got angrier and angrier."

"She did?" I asked. Why did that thought give me the first bit of excitement I'd had in a while? The last month I'd spent planning the party for tonight was the only thing bringing me any sort of purpose. "What about Micah?"

"He always has a sour face."

"True. Oh." I pointed to the invitation. "And it's not anti-love. It's pro-singleness."

"I have a boyfriend."

"Why?" I said. Okay, maybe I was teetering on the edge of the anti-love pit. "I mean, give it to one of your single friends?"

"Sure," she said, throwing it onto the seat next to her. The box released a puff of powder when it landed.

"Scarlett!" I heard my name called across the parking lot and looked around, unable to find the source.

The girl I'd been talking to started her car and I walked around the front of mine to the driver's side. That's when I saw Jack heading my way from the school, his hand up in a wave.

I smiled. He was my only source of joy these days, it felt like, and I knew that was a lot to put on a person, so I tried to keep that to myself. Of course, he knew he was my best friend, but he didn't need to know that without him I would be miserable far more often than I was. Okay, maybe he already knew that too.

"Hey," he said. "We still going to get supplies for the party?"

"Yes." I unlocked the doors with my key fob and he climbed in. We'd both gotten our licenses in the last year but I had a car and he didn't so we carpooled to school and pretty much anywhere else we wanted to go.

"Sage asked me to go to the party tonight as her date," Jack said as I started the car.

"To Micah and Cassidy's party?" I joined the line of vehicles exiting the parking lot.

"No ours," he said.

"Well, I hope you told her no."

"I told her that I'd talk to you."

"Why would you tell her that? This is a singles party. Besides, I thought you guys broke up." They'd gotten together about six months ago and broke up two months later, both claiming that the anticipation of being together was more fun than actually being together or something like that.

"I was thinking about giving her a second chance."

"You were?" I asked. Proof that second chances were a thing. The tiny flicker of hope grew in my chest.

"Do you think I should?"

"Probably, but tell her that second chances should start the day after Valentine's Day." Today, people were skipping around giving out cheap stuffed animals and even cheaper chocolate, making love feel worthless. "Don't hate me."

"I don't hate you," he said.

"Don't be irritated with me. Tomorrow is a better day." Today was the one-year anniversary of my parents' separation. Today was hard for a lot of reasons.

"You know you can talk about it," he said. "Get it out. Ask for what you need."

"I talk about it."

"You don't. You never do."

"But you know how I feel, and that helps," I said.

He just offered me a grimace, as if to say that wasn't the same thing.

"That girl is checking you out," I said, pointing to the girl giving him a long stare as she weaved between parked cars. We were still waiting to exit. It took forever to get out of the parking lot after school. "Maybe you can ask her out for tomorrow too." That came out snarkier than I meant for it to.

Jack had filled out a lot this year. He'd kept his hair long and updated his glasses again. I caught girls giving him double takes in the hall all the time. I wanted to scream, he still hunts Pokémon sometimes!

He gave me one of his head tilts, thinking.

"What?" I asked.

"It's just... are you... never mind."

"What?"

"Are you moving forward?" He pointed to the car length of space in front of me.

That wasn't what he was going to say but I inched forward anyway and shut my mouth because there were a lot of mixed emotions swirling inside of me when it came to Jack, and I refused to acknowledge any of them right now; not today.

"I thought we were going to the store," Jack said.

I slowed the car as we approached Cassidy's house. It was big. "I just want to see why people are still choosing their party over ours." I'd been checking out posts people had made from last year's party, but it was hard to see details from selfies.

"Because they're not single," Jack whispered. "And you're very strict about that rule."

"That's not why... well, maybe it is." I pulled along the curb across the street.

"Are you stopping?" he asked, slouching down in his seat. "Don't stop!"

"Just... just wait here." I turned off the car and reached for the door handle.

"Scarlett! What are you doing?" He pulled on the back of my shirt.

"I'm not going to knock on the front door or anything. I just want to look around back." A lot of the photos looked like they were taken outside.

"This isn't like you," he said.

I shrugged. "I want our party to be the best." It felt like the only thing I had right now. I needed people taking pictures at our party. Posting about our party.

I stepped out of the car and looked both ways before crossing the street. There were no cars in front of the house but they had a four-car garage so that didn't mean nobody was home. I kept that in mind as I tried to casually make my way to the side of the house. Unlike mine, their yard was fully fenced in with white vinyl fencing. I stood on a retaining wall and was able to reach over and unlock the gate just as Jack came up behind me.

"Seriously?" he asked, making me jump.

"You scared me," I said, swinging open the gate.

"You should be scared."

I grabbed his hand and led him into the backyard.

"If the police come, I'm throwing you under the bus."

"And leave me there, too," I said.

He squeezed my hand. "Scarlett," he said in a voice of chastisement.

"I'm just kidding." We reached the edge of the house, and I peered around the corner. I was right; this was where the party tonight would take place. It was immaculate. There were long tables topped with pink and red heart décor. There were chaffing dishes set out, waiting to be filled with food. In the distance I could see a fire pit, wood stacked nearby to keep it fueled. Lights were strung everywhere. "It is going to be hard to compete with this."

"It's not a competition," Jack said. "Come on. Let's go." This time he led the way back toward the gate, holding my hand. I tried not to think about the fact that I liked it.

We'd almost made it to the car when the revving of an engine stopped us on the sidewalk. I watched in horror as Micah pulled up to the house. I quickly dropped Jack's hand. Micah didn't need more to gossip about.

He stepped out of the car laughing. "You're a little early. Come back at seven."

"Come on," I said to Jack, not wanting to engage. I took several steps toward my car, but Jack didn't move.

I turned to witness a stare-off between the two of them.

"Actually," Micah said. "You better not come, you'll feel out of place. Scarlett, you're always welcome, though." He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

"Maybe you should come to ours. It's going to be way more fun than the party you have set up for forty-year-olds in the back." I reclaimed Jack's hand and pulled him to the car. When we were inside and driving away, I said, "Let's have a bonfire tonight. A big one."