Exciting?

Sarah fanned harder. Valerie looked at her weird and turned the air on. Sarah welcomed the cool air. She was beginning to perspire.

“Did Romero say anything to you?”

“No, he just stood there speechless. You think he’ll say anything?”

“I don’t know.”

She honestly didn’t. This was out of control. She wished she could tell Sofia to please not tell her anything more. She didn’t want to know. It was bad enough she was already keeping something big from Angel. She wasn’t sure which was worse. The thought made her shudder. But she knew Sofia was all alone with this.

Sarah wasn’t sure if she should feel sorry for her or admire her. Sofia’s world was full of overbearing cavemen. But it didn’t seem to slow her down.

“That’s Eric on the other line!” Sofia squealed. “I’ll call you back!”

There was a click and the call ended. Sarah put the phone down still completely stunned.

“What was that about?” Valerie asked.

“Trust me. You don’t wanna know.”

She was home by the time Sofia called her back. Eric had been honest but told Romero as little as possible and Romero promised he wouldn’t say anything, but he thought Eric was incredibly stupid.

Sarah was relieved to hear it and glad she wasn’t the only one now that knew. But she still worried that Romero might get drunk and spill it somehow. Tonight would be interesting. Everyone would be there.

CHAPTER 18

As usual Angel’s heart raced at the sight of Sarah. He kissed her as soon as she got in the car. It was supposed to be a friendly hello kiss, but unable to restrain himself, he kissed her passionately until someone in the back seat cleared their throat. Sarah pulled away immediately and turned around. Romero, Eric, and Sofia were crammed in the backseat.

“I didn’t see you guys.” Her scandalized expression when she saw them surprised him. This wasn’t the first time he was ravenous for her in front of them.

“My bad.” Angel smirked, pulling out of the driveway. “I forgot anyone was back there.”

“I was just talking to you before she got in the car, ass.” Romero protested.

Angel chuckled lacing his fingers into Sarah’s and placing their hands together on his lap. Sarah stared straight ahead, a bit too rigid. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. He hoped she wasn’t mad.

The ride to the bowling alley was a pretty quiet one, except for Romero protesting about the music. Angel hit the off button to shut Romero up and glanced in the rearview mirror for his reaction. What he saw was Sofia resting her head on Eric’s shoulder.

“You tired Sofi?”

She sat up immediately. “No.”

Angel glanced at the clock on the dash. It was only eight. “She falling asleep on you, Eric?”

Sarah shifted in her seat, brought his hand up to her lips and kissed it. He immediately forgot about Sofia and smiled instead. He was glad she wasn’t mad. He had to remember just because he could care less what anyone thought about the crazed way she made him feel, Sarah was a bit more modest.

When they got to the bowling alley Angel took Sarah aside. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. “You mad?”

Her confused expression relieved him, “About what?”

“Nothing.” He kissed her, feeling kind of dumb. “Never mind.”

He should’ve known something like that wouldn’t have made her mad. Whatever it was she was over it now. She looked at him weird but didn’t ask anything else.

There were a lot more people there than Angel had expected. He knew Friday’s were busy, they turned the lights down and played music, but this crowd was huge. Most of the guys from the team had showed up, and, apparently, Sarah and Sofia had invited the track team because there were a lot of them there as well.

Sarah and Sofia walked away to mingle with their friends from the track team. Angel didn’t mind. He was still holding out hope her friends on the team would talk her into joining, and she’d decide to stay. There were only a few more weeks before she was leaving and it killed him. But he wouldn’t dwell on that and ruin the night.

Romero handed him a soda and put his arm around his shoulder. “Happy birthday, big guy.”

Angel sipped the straw cautiously. He knew better. Sure enough it tasted like gasoline laced with some soda. Angel coughed. “What the f**k?”

Romero laughed and so did the other guys standing around him. “It’s your birthday man. Don’t be a pu**y!”

Someone always snuck in something to pour in the soda. And he knew the guys were going to try to get him wasted because it was his birthday. But he had other plans for later that night. There was no way he was missing out on that.

These things were always the same. Everyone was underage, so the only chance anyone had of getting a buzz was to sneak stuff in. He was sure half the people there were packing. Angel didn’t even like hard liquor. The only thing he’d ever go for was beer and even then it was one or two at most. But he didn’t want to disappoint the guys so he pretended to keep drinking. He knew they were all drinking the same crap and before long no one would notice when he dumped it out.

They’d been there almost two hours and Angel couldn’t believe people were still arriving. The place was almost too crowded. Angel could tell Sarah was trying to give him his space with the guys. She’d come over and hang with him for a little bit then walk back to mingle with her girlfriends.