Find You in the Dark (Find You in the Dark #1)(21)
Author: A. Meredith Walters

Grr, that crazy jealousy knifed through me again. Dana and McKenna laughed at something Clayton said. Dana in her bleach blond glory, tossing her stupid, perfect curls back and laying her hand on my Clay’s arm. Okay, I needed to check myself. He wasn’t my Clay. He was only my friend, who I thought might kiss me earlier today. That didn’t mean I had some sort of claim.

Despite my rationalizations, I was still beyond annoyed by the very obvious flirting happening on the other side of the bonfire. It was like watching a car wreck. My eyes were glued to the horror in front of me. After a few minutes, I was relieved that Kylie and the bimbettes started moving back toward the house. Clayton stood there in the flickering shadow of the bonfire, looking like some sort of male model in his dark jeans and green Henley shirt. He was without his faded army jacket for once and he looked almost naked without it.

I nudged Rachel in the side and cocked my head in Clay’s direction letting her know I was heading over to him. “I’ll be there in a sec.” She told me. I walked over to Clay and I knew the exact moment he saw me. It was like one of those super cheesy movie moments when the boy and girl see each other across a crowded room, their eyes locked only on each other. They move slowly toward one another, as if pulled by an invisible force. Then they rush into each others’ arms, kissing passionately, and declaring their undying love.

Well, my scene didn’t quite go that way. Clay and I met half way and he kept his hands firmly in his jeans’ pockets and nodded his head in my direction. Though, he did give me an awfully nice smile. “Hey, Mags. Raging party. Not exactly what I was expecting.” He said jokingly as a junior stumbled past us to puke his guts out in the dirt not even ten feet behind me.

I cringed. “Yeah, I’m sorry, Clay, it’s not usually like this. Apparently Melissa’s parents are out of town, thus the massive kegger.” Clayton shrugged, trying to act as if the crazy debauchery around us wasn’t bothering him. I lightly touched his arm and he looked down at my fingers and then up into my eyes. “If this is too much for you, we can leave. You know, go get something to eat, go see a movie. Anything really.” I said, hoping he’d say yes and we could get out of there.

Clay looked around, tossing his dark hair out of his eyes. “No, that’s cool. I mean I’m already here, right?” I dropped my hand from his sleeve and it hung limply at my side. We fell into our normal silence as we watched kids from our school and the next town over, partying like it was 1999.

“Hey guys! Clay, it’s so cool that you made it!” Rachel gave Clay a big hug. Clayton looked over her shoulder at me, surprise obvious on his face. Because he and Rachel were definitely not at the “hugging” stage of their acquaintance. I tried not to laugh. There was no way she had more than one drink, but here she was acting like she had been mainlining vodka all night. She was such a light weight. Looking at Clay, I gestured that Rachel had already been gulping up the happy sauce.

Clay smirked and mouthed sarcastically, “No kidding.” Rachel pulled away and then gave me the same boisterous hug. I couldn’t help but laugh at her. She definitely put the “happy” in “happy drunk.” Well, until she was forced to interact with Daniel, who had a habit of setting her off when she was like this. I was plotting ways of keeping them apart for the remainder of the evening, when I saw him walking towards us with Kylie firmly attached to his side.

I sighed and prayed that Rachel wasn’t too tanked to keep a lid on the drama. “Mags! Rach! There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Daniel gave me a Polo Sport scented hug and I nearly gagged. He wore way too much and the smell got stuck in my nose. He then turned and kissed Rachel on the forehead. Rachel scowled at him. “I seriously doubt you were looking for us Danny. You seem busy enough.” Kylie pulled herself up at Rachel’s biting comment and interlaced her fingers with Daniel’s in a territorial move.

Daniel frowned at Rachel but chose to ignore her words, which was probably smart on his part. He turned to Clay. “Hey Clayton, good to see you made it out.” I couldn’t help but smile at Daniel’s efforts to be nice. They engaged in that weird guy fist bump, hand shake, half hug thing boys do. Clay gave him a small smile. “Hey, Daniel. How’s it going?” Daniel shrugged but gave a wary sideways glance at Rachel, who was now focused on anything besides him and Kylie. She was definitely failing in the subtlety department this evening.

“You know, same ol’, same ol’.” Rachel’s head whipped around and gave him a hateful smile. “Yeah it is the same ol’, same ol’. Isn’t it Danny? I can’t figure out why you’d keep coming back for the same old and tired thing instead of finding something new.” Kylie’s face turned red and I knew I had to intervene before there was an outright cat fight.

“Rachel, enough.” I hissed under my breath. Daniel looked pissed. “What the hell is your problem Rachel? If I’ve done something to offend you, just tell me already.” Poor delusional Daniel. He was seriously about to open up Pandora’s box and had no idea.

“Rachel’s just had a few too many drinks. She’ll be right as rain tomorrow. Don’t listen to her…” Rachel shoved me in the chest, so that she could move past me. She got right in Daniel’s face, her expression murderous. Clayton thankfully realized something was about to go down and moved deftly between them. “Rachel, could you help me find the keg? I’m pretty thirsty.” He asked her, shouldering Daniel out of the way.

Rachel blinked a few times, but the change in topic worked and she gave Clay a bleary smile. “Of course, Clayton. I’d be happy to show you. I need to get away from all this bullshit anyway.” With a final look of death in Daniel’s direction, she led Clay toward the house. Clayton looked at me as he started to follow her. “Come find us when you’re done here. I’ll probably need the help.” He looked at Rachel’s rapidly retreating form. “Sure, just give me a minute.” I said. Clayton nodded before hurrying after Rachel.

“What the hell is that bitch’s problem?” Kylie growled. My back stiffened. Yeah, Rachel was a little out of line, but no one could call my best friend a bitch but me. “Watch your mouth, Kylie, don’t say shit about her like that.” My voice was hard and I gave the smaller junior girl a look of steel. Kylie shrank a bit under my stare.

I turned to Daniel. “Danny, can I talk to you a moment?” I looked pointedly at Kylie. “Alone, please.” Kylie’s face turned red again. It seemed to be her natural coloring tonight. She let out a dramatic harrumph and stomped off. Kylie wouldn’t be joining the Maggie Young fan club anytime soon, that’s for sure.