"What?" I asked.

"We're watching a movie over at Connor's, remember?" Shannen said, widening her eyes slightly, telling me not to argue. "I promised I'd bring M&M's and I forgot to get them so we have to make a stop. Come on. We're already late."

"You're going over to Connor Shale's house?" my mom said, clearly baffled considering I'd just screamed my head off about not wanting to hang with the Cresties.

"See?" I said, picking up my bag. "You don't know what I do every night. Come on, Shannen."

I rushed past her out the door, just hoping neither of my parents would shout at me to come back. But I guess they were too involved in picking up the shrapnel from the bomb I'd just dropped, because neither one of them said a thing.

"Thank you so much, Shannen. You completely saved me."

I got out of her mom's car and leaned back through the open window. She killed the engine and unbuckled her seat belt.

"Wait. You're coming in?" I said, glancing over my shoulder at Chum and Howie's place. The lights were dim, but I heard a splat from the backyard, followed by a round of cheers.

"It is my brother's house. I figured I'd come in and say hi," Shannen said with a shrug.

"Oh. Right. I keep forgetting," I said, pushing my hair away from my face as we navigated the uneven front walk.

"Maybe you have been drinking too much," Shannen joked.

"LOL," I replied flatly.

If she got on my case about this, I had about a million comebacks, starting with the fact that she was the first person I ever knew to try wine coolers, and the only person I knew to ever black out. But she just smiled at me and reached for the door. I couldn't believe how cool she was being, first rescuing me from that awful scene with my parents, then agreeing to drive me here to meet Cooper. It was like a whole new Shannen Moore. Unless she had an ulterior motive. Always had to keep an eye out for one of those.

"Hey! Li'l sis!" Charlie loped over from the kitchen with two bottles of beer and handed one of them to Shannen. "What're you guys doing here?"

"Looking for Cooper," I said. "He's here, right?"

Charlie took a long pull on his beer, then sucked his lips and nodded. "Out back."

"Cool. Thanks again, Shannen."

"I'll come find you before I go," she said as I slipped out the back door.

"Okay." Whatever, I thought, keeping my defenses up.

As soon as I stepped outside, I froze. Cooper was standing behind the catapult with his arm slung over the shoulders of a wispy blond girl wearing a cutoff top and skinny shorts. She had her hand in the back pocket of his cargos. My head instantly swam. I was seeing things, right? I had to be seeing things.

"Crestie Girl!" he shouted when he spotted me. He raised the arm that was unoccupied and beckoned me over. "You're here!"

Everyone seemed to be watching me as I walked slowly toward Cooper and his arm candy, picking my way over the debris of shattered lawn ornaments and rotting fruit. The blond girl eyed me with obvious disdain as he pulled me into his side.

"What's up?" he asked, planting a kiss on my lips.

He still hadn't let go of the blonde.

"Nothing. I just . . . I wanted to see you," I said.

Wasn't he even going to introduce me to the girl who had her hand down his pants?

"Cool. Well, here I am." He let go of both of us simultaneously, lifting his arms up and over our heads. "Dudes! Let's try the barbells!"

"Dude! No way!" Dex shouted. "Too heavy."

"That's the point, asshole," Cooper shouted back.

He went chest to chest with Dex as if they really were fighting, and a bunch of guys got into the mix, yelling and cackling loudly. The blond girl sipped her punch and eyed me up and down. Who the hell was she? What was she doing here?

"So you're the summer girl," she said finally. Her voice was nasal and she didn't sound too impressed by me. Plus, the way she called me "the summer girl" made me feel about one inch tall.

"And you are?" I said.

She scoffed. "Not interested."

She tilted her head back and drank from her cup as she sauntered away. Clearly we were going to be BFF.

"Ally! Hey!"

Jenny came barreling up behind me, planted her hands on my shoulders, and jumped up like she was trying to dunk me underwater. I buckled and we both almost hit our knees. "You're here!"

"Yeah. I'm here," I said as she hugged me. "Who was that?" I asked, nodding toward the blond girl.

"That would be Jessie," Jen said with a grimace. "She was supposed to be in Louisiana for the summer, but she just got back."

"Oh." I took a breath and steeled myself. "Are she and Cooper . . . ?"

She rolled her eyes and pulled her hands into her long sleeves, shuddering. "They go to proms and stuff together. You know, they're like each other's fallback positions. So as soon as she got home, she fell back."

I swallowed hard. But Cooper didn't need a fallback position. He had me.

"Oh, but don't worry! They haven't hooked up or anything," Jen said, checking the end of one of her braids. "He's totally into you still."

I supposed that should have made me feel better, but it didn't. Probably because Cooper hadn't looked in my direction in five minutes. Plus, the "still" she tacked on the end sounded a lot like "for now."

"What's up with him tonight?" I asked, lifting my chin at Cooper. "He's being weird."

"He got into it with my mom," Jen said, rolling her eyes again. "He's been taking it out on the catapult all afternoon."

"Oh."

Suddenly I felt awkward and out of place. I looked around at all the unfamiliar, laughing faces-at Jessie's awful sneer-and wondered what I was doing there. But then, I remembered. Cooper was my boyfriend. I'd come here to talk to him. And it sounded like he might need someone to talk to, too. I screwed up my confidence, walked over to him, and put my arms around him from behind, standing on my toes to rest my chin on his shoulder.

"Hey," I said. "Wanna go somewhere and talk?"

He let out a sigh and tipped his head forward. "Hang on a sec, guys," he said to his friends.

I had to let him go so he could turn to face me, but his expression wasn't exactly encouraging. He looked down at me in much the same way Jessie had moments ago.

"Talk about what?" he said, taking a sip of beer.

"I don't know. . . ." I fiddled with the hem of my shirt. "Jenny said you had a fight with your mom. . . . I thought you might want to vent."

"No, thanks. I'm fine."

He started to turn away again, but I put my hand on his shoulder. "Well, then I need to talk. My dad came down tonight for some kind of, like, intervention. He and my mom just jumped all over me about what a huge disappointment I've been this summer and-"

"Oh my God! Enough already!" Cooper shouted, turning to face me.

The backyard fell silent and my stomach splattered all over my feet.

"What?" I croaked.

"I am so sick of hearing about you and your problems with your mother and how your dad bailed on you and wah, wah, wah," he said, his eyes blazing. "News flash, Crestie Girl, everyone's lives suck! The only difference between you and the rest of us is that we don't spend every waking second whining about it."

I felt like the very air was closing in on me. My eyes stung and I blinked back tears of shock. Why was he talking to me like this?

"Cooper," Jenny squeaked. "Don't."

"Shut up, Jen. I know you worship the ground she walks on, but God! Thank God you don't sound like her. I would've had to disown you years ago."

"Cooper," I said, my voice thick. "What's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with me?" he blurted. "What's the matter with me is I thought you were different. I thought it was so cool that I finally found the one bennie who was chill and down to earth and only cared about having fun. But deep down you're just like every other female on the planet. Self-centered, whiny, and a prude."

"Dude. You are so outta line."

Charlie walked over and got between me and Cooper. Shannen's hand was on my arm, but I barely felt it. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. Cooper blinked at Charlie like he'd never seen him before. Then he looked down at me and blinked again. For a split second he was Cooper again. The Cooper I knew. The sweet, carefree, kind Cooper. But then, his expression shut down.

"Whatever," he said. "I'm outta here."

He tossed his beer bottle over his shoulder and it smashed on an old, broken-down barbecue. As he walked out, he grabbed Jessie's hand and tugged her with him. A tear spilled onto my cheek and I swiped it away.

"Ally," Shannen said.

Her voice sparked this roar of heat inside of my chest that brought me back to life. I couldn't believe that she, of all people, had been here to witness that. First she'd brought down the worst humiliation of my life at her birthday party, and now, in one night, she'd been there for a horrifying argument with my parents, and the worst breakup scene of a lifetime.

"I wanna go home," I said.

"Yeah. I'll take you right now."

"No. I mean I want to go home," I said, my voice cracking.

But even as I choked out the words, I realized I didn't know where home was.

I needed to see Jake.

I knew it as soon as Shannen pulled into Gray's driveway and I saw that my dad's leased car was still there. I had this vivid flashback to the night we'd come home from Shannen's party to find my dad on the doorstep and I'd thought, for a split second, that it was Jake. I had so, so wanted it to be Jake. And just like that, I needed to see him. Now. Jake was the one who actually cared about me. Jake was the one who had actually been there for me. I'd shut him out because I was angry and embarrassed and small. Now all I could do was hope that it wasn't too late.

Because Jake . . . Jake was home.

"Want me to come in with you?" Shannen asked as we both looked up at the brightly lit house.

"No. It's okay. Go to Connor's."

"You sure? Because it could get ugly in there," Shannen said.

That's fine, because I'm not going in there, I thought.

"I'm good. Really." I looked at her as I got out of the car. "Thanks, Shannen."

She sighed and shrugged. "Anytime."

She pulled out slowly, her tires crunching over the pebble driveway, her headlights flashing across the garage doors. I held my breath, waiting for someone to come to the window, having noticed the lights, but no one did. I stared across the driveway at the open garage. Gray's second car-a late 1990s BMW-was parked inside. My eyes glimpsed the drawer where he kept the emergency set of keys. If I could just get into the garage with no one hearing, I could be out of the driveway before they noticed. I looked down at the rocks beneath my feet. Damn these LBI driveways and their loud pebbly-ness.

Tiptoeing wouldn't work. Probably the best thing to do would be to take long strides. The fewer footfalls, the less noise. I took a deep breath, and started to leap down the driveway.

My right foot hit the ground.

Crunch!

My left foot hit the ground.

Crunch!

I stretched as far as I could on the next leap.

Crunch!

One more and my foot hit the concrete floor of the garage. I paused to listen for the sound of the front door squeaking open-for footsteps on the indoor stairs that led directly to the garage from the kitchen. Nothing. I lifted my hands in victory. Freedom was mine. I raced for the keys.

"What the hell are you doing?"