I barely said a word to Zac during second hour. Mostly, I just grunted one-word responses to his project related questions and only the ones that I felt absolutely obligated to answer. Then, I blatantly ignored the rest of his efforts to keep the conversation going. I didn't even know if I had a right to be this upset. It wasn't like we were dating. We weren't anything, really, not even friends. More than anyone else at Ashton Wellesley, I knew exactly what kind of person he was, what he was capable of doing, and, yet, I still let myself catch a whiff of feelings for the bastard.

Yep, I was absolutely a fucking idiot.

At dismissal, Zac gently caught my arm as I stood to go. He looked confused, and his eyes were brimming with concern. "What the heck is going on with you today, babygirl?"

I yanked my arm away and snapped, "I'm not your 'babygirl,' Mazur. Now, please, get outta my way before I kick your ass."

Zac let me go with a shocked expression.

I slugged through the rest of the day with a heavy black cloud hanging over me. Zac kept texting me, but I ignored him. As I sat in sixth period, trying to keep up with Mr. Moreno's lecture on polynomial functions, I caught Dylan Walsh staring in my direction. He was only a sophomore but already taking Pre-Calc alongside juniors and seniors. He had sandy brown hair. Baby blue eyes. Kind of cute. He winked. I cocked my head and arched an eyebrow back at him. Dylan grinned. I gave him a small smile before turning back to Mr. Moreno.

By the end of class, the cloud above my head had eased ever so slightly from a hellish black to a stormy gray.

My little exchange with Dylan reminded me of something important. I might not be an eleven out of ten like Mamma had been, but I was still pretty damn gorgeous!

Why was I sitting around and moping over some stupid boy with one too many tattoos and tacky piercings?

I possessed the motherfucking DNA of the face of Gucci and the body of a Victoria's Secret Angel! Standing at five-four, perhaps the only asset I hadn't inherited from Mamma was her height, but it was nothing that a pair of three to four inch heels couldn't fix. I could've easily nabbed any guy I wanted at Ashton Wellesley if it hadn't been for my unhealthy obsession with school and all things related to Stanford.

Aleah's Halloween party was coming up on Saturday. There would be drinks aplenty, and already I knew I'd be heading straight for the vodka. Grey Goose was an aphrodisiac for me. It affected me like no other alcoholic substance, allowing me to toss all of my Type A bullshit out the window.

The first time I took a sip of vodka, I got my first kiss. The second time I ever took a shot of it, I tried to hand my V-card to Bryson Jeon and probably would have succeeded if I hadn't hurled all over the poor guy while he was unwrapping the condom. After this embarrassingly epic fail at sex, I'd avoided imbibing hard liquor altogether, but no more!

Fuck Zac and his womanizing ass!

I was done with letting him dictate my peace of mind. The only thing that should be bothering me right now was the travesty of keeping my hotness on lockdown for so many years. My brows snapped together with steely resolve.

Vodka and I would definitely be getting reacquainted on Saturday night.

***

On Saturday, Nat, Amari, Archie, and I arrived at Aleah's beautiful gray-shingled, white brick mansion. Unlike her parents' lake house, their actual residence had the clean lines of a modern-day farmhouse. Archie had been bullied into drive all of us since Amari nominated him to be DD for the night. My friend and her ex had made up shortly after Aleah's party, and, to everyone's surprise, the pair had been going strong ever since.

We were dressed as characters from one of Nat's all-time favorite shows, The Guild. She was the titular character, Codex, and had assigned Amari and me to be the gender-bent versions of Zaboo and Vork. Archie tagged along as Bladezz.

Amari wore a loose striped polo and baggy jeans. Meanwhile, I had on a tie and an oversized man's suit in light brown with a yellow dress shirt underneath. Amari had been somewhat disappointed by the lack of sluttiness in Nat's costume choices this time around, claiming that women were only allowed one day a year on Halloween to dress as skanks and not be judged, but I didn't mind. Vork was hilarious.

Once we were inside, I grabbed Nat and Amari's hands and immediately led them towards the drinks. Archie followed closely behind while clasping onto Amari's other hand. I downed two shots of Grey Goose before any of them could even take a swig of their beers.

"Slow down there, bish, the night is still young," Amari warned.

Nat tagged on, "Yeah! Don't forget what almost happened last time you drank too much. You puked all over Bryson."

I brushed them off, already feeling a happy tingle coursing through my body. "Don't worry, guys, I know exactly what I'm doing!"

I looped my arms around their shoulders and ushered my girls into the crowd. The music was thumping. Sexy nurses were grinding on zombies. A Harry Potter climbed onto a coffee table and started twerking. Amari was dancing with Archie. Nat and I were locked in a crazed dance battle, taking turns to make each other bust a gut with our exaggerated attempts to vogue, floss, do the robot, and moonwalk. Tossing my head back and whipping my hair around in delight, I felt like I was soaring through the air until I spotted Zac across the room.

His hands were locked onto Red's hips as she rubbed her ass shamelessly against his crotch.

My face fell. I excused myself from my friends and made a beeline for the bathroom. Behind the locked door, I proceeded to make some adjustments to my costume. Removing a few pieces here and there. Reapplying lipstick until my lips were the color of red wine. By the time I stepped back outside, I had on nothing but a tie, the oversized brown blazer, and my black Gucci stilettos. I figured the blazer was long enough to double as a minidress, and my boobs looked fucking amazing as they played peekaboo behind the tie.

I marched back into the crowd and approached the first available guy I saw.

Lucas Seeiso.

Senior.

Soccer player.

Let's fucking do this!

I grabbed his hands and placed them on my hips. I commanded, "Dance with me."

Lucas' eyes went round, but he didn't resist when I pulled him onto the dance floor.