Then, Carina put her arm around me and squeezed. “Thank you, Tess.”
“For what?” I asked, baffled.
“I’ve always wanted a normal-kid existence.” She smiled at me wistfully. “This has honestly been more fun than any of that other stuff. And I wouldn’t have done any of it without you.”
My heart flipped and I smiled, mood changed on a dime. “You’re welcome,” I said. And my chest swelled a bit. My list had gone beyond me to make Carina’s life a little better, too. Just like, for a hot minute, it had made Christopher’s life a little better.
I tugged out my phone to check for messages. I hadn’t even thought about Christopher since we’d been here, but he would have really loved this one. Still nothing from him, though, and my spirits sunk.
But I wouldn’t let them sink entirely.
“Come on. Let’s take a picture of this.”
“Abso-freaking-lutely!” Carina said.
She leaned in as I angled a selfie so that we could get the big tree in the background, and I captured the shot. Just like earlier, I fired it off to Christopher with a text:
#6 Complete! Still wish you were here!
• • •
TESS’S NEW YEAR’S BUCKET LIST
Make a paper airplane that actually flies (20 seconds at least) ✓
Sing in public ✓
Strike up a conversation with a stranger ✓
Wear high heels outside the house ✓
Make out with a guy whose last name I don’t know (???)
TP someone’s house ✓
Get Adam Michel’s autograph ✓
Get a short, stylish haircut
Ski a black diamond slope ✓
Eat sushi
* * *
• • •
An hour later I was dancing. With Damon and Chase and two of their other friends whose names I couldn’t remember. Lauren was schooling some guy in a basketball game on the Xbox, and Carina was nowhere to be seen, but I was pretty sure she was in the kitchen showing people how to make her famous microwave tacos.
Damon slipped his arms around my waist and pulled me in close so that our bodies felt like one connected thing. I blushed and tried to pull away, but he held me tighter, and I felt the need to look up. To see if I could figure out exactly what he was thinking. But when I looked up, his eyes were closed, his head tipped back as he danced.
Miraculously, I still didn’t know his last name. I could just kiss him. Right here, right now. I could kiss him and cross #5 off my list. It was looming closer and closer to midnight with every passing second. Soon I’d have only twenty-four hours to finish my list. This might be my last chance.
I was just about to grab his neck and pull him toward me when a bright white light hit me dead in the eyes, blinding me to everything. A scream pealed out from very nearby, and then someone pounded on the door. Three hard, serious knocks.
“This is the police! We’re shutting this party down!”
And then, all hell broke loose.
Suddenly I was on the floor. And it wasn’t until I looked up and saw Damon running for the back door that I realized he’d shoved me. On my shoulders I could feel where his hands had pushed me away from him. Then, someone stepped on my fingers, and I shouted. People were careening everywhere. My sister threw the Xbox controller onto the hardwood floor, where it shattered in ten pieces.
“Tess!? Where are you?”
“Down here!” I shouted, waving my injured hand.
She lunged for me as everyone else scattered.
“Are you okay?” Lauren asked, dragging me up.
“Yes. No. I don’t—Damon threw me on the freaking floor!”
“I know! I saw him. Jackass. I hope you didn’t hook up with him,” Lauren said, pulling me toward the back door.
Really? That’s what she was thinking about right now?
“Open the door or we’re busting it down!” someone yelled.
But then, impossibly, they were inside. Two cops streamed in from the back entry, shining their flashlights in everyone’s faces. Lauren took a quick turn and dragged me toward the staircase, where I saw Carina standing, frozen like one of the ice sculptures back at the lodge.
“Come on!” Lauren cried, trying to pull me upstairs.
“What? Why? What good is that gonna do?” I demanded. “Are we going to jump out a second-story window?”
And then a hand came down on my shoulder. I was turned roughly around, and a cop with a skinny moustache held his phone up next to my face. “Yep. This is her.”
What? What were they talking about? Her who?
“I’ve got one of the other ones,” another guy said, hand clasped around Carina’s arm.
“I’d let go if I were you,” she said. “I have a very famous father, and he has two dozen lawyers on emergency retainer.”
“Yeah. Right, kid,” the cop said with a smirk. “Let’s go. Outside.”
They half shoved, half dragged us out the front door. Lauren made a desperate sound, and I knew she was trying to decide between running with the rest of the party and following us to make sure I was okay. As much as I wanted her by my side, I kind of wanted her to run. She didn’t need to get in trouble, and if she left, she could get Loretta.
God, Loretta. The last time I’d seen her, she’d called me a child to my face, and now I’d gone and proven her right. She was going to lose her mind when she found out about this. But what even was this? There were dozens of kids at the party, and I hadn’t even drunk anything. Why were they zeroing in on me and Carina?
Then, we made it to the porch, and I knew. The other cops had corralled Damon and two of the friends who had helped us in our toilet paper mission. Even now, the front yard looked sort of beautiful, all that white paper fluttering gracefully in the breeze under a blanket of twinkling stars. Though the flashing red and blue lights of the three police cars did muck it up a bit. The cops forced us down onto the porch steps next to the other perpetrators. I couldn’t even look at Damon. My ribs still hurt from where I’d hit the floor when he’d pushed me.