I spent the first hour of the party watching the mass of teenagers lounging in various places throughout and outside my best friend's house from the front porch. I hated it, but I would have to hand it to Max tomorrow morning when he was sober. He had actually pulled off a pretty bad ass party. What I wasn't thrilled with was that I was going to have to be the one to clean up the aftermath of it.

A few of Max's teammates and a couple girls off the cheer squad had greeted me and talked for a few minutes, but had since disappeared into the crowd of people in the kitchen and living room. I had leaned into the rail encasing the Park's patio, my arm resting on one of the posts, propping my chin up as I watched a group of drunk idiots dog piling on top of one another in the front yard. A few girls stood a few feet back, taking selfies, then turning the camera on the boys in front of them.

I had tried to take Max's words to heart. This was our last party as teenagers, but I couldn't find it in me to enjoy it as everyone else was. High school had been my comfort zone, as had being in the shadow of my best friends, not quite in the forefront. Now that we'd be going our separate ways for college at the end of the summer, I felt like someone had punched me in the gut and knocked the wind out of me, forcing me to face reality.

"You look absolutely miserable." The voice was enough to break me completely out of my state of depression.

Never in the four years I'd been forced to go to these parties had I ever seen Ryan Blake at any of them. He'd always been a year ahead of all of us, and had graduated last year, but had always kinda just been there because of Ryder, who made sure to be at every party. The shock of seeing the older of the Blake boys standing on the first step leading up to Max's front porch didn't reside in just me. The idiots who'd been messing around a few minutes ago had turned their full attention to him, the girls whispering back and forth between each other. I'm sure a few of the people inside were making comments of their own.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I questioned, then realized how bitchy it sounded. "I thought Ryan Blake didn't do high school parties."

"I don't." He scratched at the back of his neck. "But my brother wanted to come and I figured you'd be here. I need to talk to you."

I crossed my arms over rail. "I'm good. What I agreed to do with Ryder doesn't involve you. I don't need to deal with both of you."

"It's not about that, Zoey." He looked over his shoulder, then nodded toward the house. "Is there somewhere we can talk in private?"

"This is the most private you're gonna get." I pointed at the concrete beneath my feet. "That's why I'm out here. I couldn't handle the wonderful scent of adolescence and their habit of not using deodorant."

He chuckled as he made his way up the steps, hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. It was honestly a little weird seeing him look so uncomfortable. He'd always worn confidence like it was another layer of skin.

I was momentarily distracted by Ryder jogging up the steps and into the house, knowing that him being here couldn't mean anything good. Not only did Max not like him, but his list had consisted of some really crazy stuff and I was scared he'd attempt something just as stupid here.

"We should probably follow him." I stated, pushing off the railing.

"Why?" He asked, confused.

It was then, staring into his guarded blue eyes, that I realized Ryder hadn't told him about the list.

As if on cue, screams erupted from the other side of the house. I pushed passed Ryan and rushed through the house and toward the deck. As soon as I stepped out, I caught sight of Max and Gabby on the opposite of the side of the pool, joined by what appeared to be half the student body of our graduating class, all staring up at the roof of the house. I groaned internally, knowing I wasn't going to be happy with what I found up there.

Somehow Ryder had managed to climb on to the roof and was perched on the shingles, stuffing his mouth with something. His eyes roamed the crowd until they found me standing in front of the pool, arms thrown up in exasperation.

"What the hell are you doing, Ryder?" I yelled.

He ignored my question, and frankly the seriousness of what he was doing, and waved a cookie in front of him. "These cookies are amazing, Zoey."

I felt Ryan stop beside me, only pissing me off more when he started laughing beside me.

"What he's doing isn't funny." I snapped.

Ryan started to cross his arms. "It is because this is some shit I'd do."

"Ryder, come on, get down." I turned my attention back to his brother, about to take another step, but Ryan pressed his palm against my chest, shaking his head.

It took my brain a few minutes to piece together everything, and even longer to process it.

"You better jump!" I shouted, shaking my head. "I swear to God, Ryder, if you-"

He stood, his foot slipping. The crowd of people around my gasped as he steadied himself, giving a thumbs up. He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside, taking a shaky step forward. I tried to move forward again, but Ryan restrained me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I tried to push him off, but he didn't even budge.

He gestured toward my body with his free hand. "What the hell do you think you're going to be able to do? You're going to end up getting bot of you hurt."

"He's going to end up hurting himself!"

"He knows what he's doing, Summers. Chill."

I almost told Ryan about this list then and there, but Ryder decided to break that train of thought by throwing himself off the roof. I cried out, not able to rush forward, as Ryder's head missed the wall of the pool by a quarter of an inch and he soaked his brother and me in water. He resurfaced a second later, earning hollering and applause from the crowd around the pool. I met Max's irritated expression, but it was soon blocked by Ryder pushing himself up and out of the pool in front of me.

"This wasn't part of the stupid list." I slapped a hand against his chest angrily. "You're an asshole doing that."

He opened his mouth, ready to defend himself, but I shoved him so he fell back into the water and stalked off, leaving everyone, including the culprit himself, to stare after me in shock.

**

I dug through my best friend's closet for my own clothes, but came up empty handed and ended up having to grab one of his shirts and a pair of boxers that'd have to act as a pair of shorts beneath it. Just as I finished unzipping my dress, watching the soaked cloth fall to the ground, my hands on the back of my bra, Max threw his bedroom door open and stepped in.

I gasped, covering my chest. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

"You're in my room, Zoey." He shut the door quickly behind him and sat on his bed, stretching his arms behind his head. "It's not like I haven't seen you in a bikini."

"I was about to take my bra off." I stated grabbing the clean clothes from the bed next to him. "Which means you would have seen me naked."

He didn't respond to the comment directly, it was almost as if he were purposely changing the subject. Which was honestly a relief to me, I had no desire to keep it going.

"Ryan Blake is looking for you. Care to explain?" He raised an eyebrow, looking as if the name left a bad taste in his mouth.

"I dunno. He said he needed to talk to me then Ryder pulled all that dumb shit out there." I shrugged a shoulder.

Max stood, shrugging. "You know how he is. Just wants to get you in bed, probably."

I grabbed a pillow and started whacking him upside the head with it. "If he wanted to do that, he had years to try and do so. You dirty minded little ass-"

He accidently tripped over his own foot in the midst of laughing and trying to take the pillow from me, knocking us both off our feet and on to the ground. Unfortunately it resulted in me landing on top of him in nothing but my bra and panties, my cheeks flushing immediately.

Of course Gabby took that wonderfully awkward moment to throw the door open. I immediately jumped up, my stomach churning. The look of betrayal and hurt that crossed her face shook me to my core.

"Gabby, wait!" I caught her at the top of the stairs. "It wasn't what it looked like. I swear. I'd never do that to you. We. . . I don't feel like that about him."

She snickered, shoving me back. "I hate you."

It wasn't until she was off the stairs and somewhere in the crowd of people at the bottom of it staring up at me that I realized why they were all smiling and whispering.

I had run out of the room in nothing but my undergarments. One of Max's teammates pulled out his phone, likely to take a picture, but it was plucked from his grip by Ryan and thrown out the open front door. The guy yelled something at Ryan, but he was staring up at me, still drenched.

Max dragged me back into the room, shoving the clothes into my expectant arms, before he squeezed my shoulder in a comforting gesture and walked out of his room, slamming his door shut behind him.