A weird series of events found me driving to a party with Ellen next to me and Gigi chattering away in my backseat. It had been planned for tonight, regardless of whether we won or lost. But the fact was that we won and were now one game away from winning district. Exactly where we'd been last year.

But we were completely different people now.

I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel and itched to grab my phone. I wanted to check if Santi had arrived at the party. Gigi was so excited that it was in the UCF area; there were guaranteed to be college boys. And girls, I added in my mind, competition for her. They'd convinced me to wear a form fitting slip of a dress that Gigi owned and had me feeling major self conscious, but they caught me riding a high after that huge win and I let them get me into it, because I wanted to see if I could feel high from being girly, as well.

When we got to the house I had a niggling feeling that we'd encounter trouble tonight. It looked like a frat house.

"Guys, we don't have to do this," I said, looking as a group of people spilled out of the house, drinks in hand, laughing about something or someone. "We're still minors, you know."

Gigi just said, "Live a little!" And jumped out of the car before I'd even found a good parking spot.

My best friend looked at me, much more serious than I'd have expected. "If you weren't here, what would be the alternative? Going home to dwell on the win or on how it's been a year since the accident?"

I didn't answer her question. Instead I found a decent parking spot clearing not far from the entrance of the residence. I parked my car and we got out, making a mental note of exactly where it was in case shit went south and we had to make a dash for it.

There was a wall of music as soon as we walked in, louder than a regular house party. Either these guys had serious dough to spend on a sound system or-

"Holy shit!" Ellen screamed, and to me it almost sounded like a whisper.

There was a live band. In a house. What the hell?

They were playing some rock song I didn't recognize, maybe an original, but they sounded right up my alley. I tried to Shazam them but no dice. The lead singer was a thick girl with hair that had a life of its own, and her voice did all sorts of things that made me wonder if it was autotune. But someone made a mistake that rattled the rest of the band for a second, and I realized they were live. Holy shit, indeed. I tried to ask someone the name of the band but all I could make out was the word Funeral.

I wanted to find out more about them, but more importantly I wanted to find our friends. Ellen and I grabbed hands and set out to explore. We passed a group of people playing beer pong, then another group of what seemed to be like a competition of making out the longest. My best friend nudged me and openly pointed at a guy who was checking me out. There was something definitely sleazy about him and I sped up the pace.

Ellen saw them by the pool in the back. Great as the music was, I was thankful to be able to hear my thoughts again as we stepped outside. What they were telling me where lovely things like, what is that bitch doing, or what the fuck is going on. Lots of cussing overall when I saw Jessica run her hands down Santi's chest. He stepped back and turned his head, seeing me for the first time but as if I'd pulled an invisible thread that drew his attention. I just raised an eyebrow to him and he shook his head very slightly.

We were still play-acting at being just friends, and since no one except Ellen knew better, there was no way Jessica could be doing this on purpose. Except that she'd said she was over him. So what the hell?

And then I saw McCann sitting with a beer to the side, staring at them.

"Well, that's awkward," Ellen voiced the understatement of the year.

"Should I rescue him or suffer?"

"It's a dilemma," she admitted. Then she tugged at my arm. "For now, let's just casually say hi."

There was nothing casual by the way she bounced on her feet in front of them and all but yelled, "Hi!"

Jessica got distracted and tore her eyes away from him to us. She paused longer on me. Or my dress, I should say.

"That looks different on you than it does on Gigi."

Did they know each other's wardrobe to a T, or what? "Thanks?" I asked, unsure if that was a good thing. She didn't agree or deny, leaving me further confused.

"Anyway, we talked about this," Santi continued, as if Ellen and I weren't standing there and as if I weren't wearing the most revealing dress I'd ever worn. He looked at Jessica instead of at me. "It was fun but I'm not interested in fooling around anymore."

Her eyes flicked to me for a second. "Oh, so you got what you wanted and now we're done? What about my side of the bargain?"

Ellen gasped, connecting the dots with the same speed as I did. Going by what little he'd said, Jessica got with Santi to get back at McCann for cheating on her over the summer. Judging by the latter's venomous expression, it was working. She seemed to imply that he'd also got with her to get under someone's skin.

"And officially this party got too exciting," I announced. "I'm out."

I made a turn at the same time as Ellen told me to wait and grabbed my arm. But when I looked back it was Santi who was holding me back. His face was the picture of annoyance, and I wondered how he had the gall to be annoyed at me in this whole situation.

"Ooh," Ellen cooed in a sing a song way. "I wish I had popcorn."

I glared at her. "Oh, shush, you."

Santi ignored all that and just looked at me. "You, wait. Let me finish this, please."

Jessica sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, at least let me be the one to break up with you, okay? So I can look like I have some dignity."

That was a fair point. Her whole plan really would go to shit if he broke up with her in front of her ex. And she did help me pick the swimsuit that finally made Santi come around.

I painted on a smile for the audience, so they figured we were having a totally friendly and normal conversation here. The last thing I wanted was for anybody to guess that I'd been the hidden jealous girlfriend in this picture. "Okay, here's what we're going to do." I motioned at all of them to huddle around me. "Ellen and I are going to go find Chris and leave you guys some time for Act II of this scene."

Santi's eyebrow went up, but it was Jessica who asked, "And that is?"

"First, you're going to laugh like you mean it." She looked at me blankly. "Right now."

She did and I tagged along. Ellen joined with an uncertain tone.

Then I continued. "After we leave, you two are going to continue your deep discussion. Santi, you'll pretend to act like a jerk. You can be quite convincing at times."

"Really?" he deadpanned.

I looked back at the queen bee. "And then you break up with him, loud and clear in front of everybody. Stalk off with fake tears for effect. If McDouche cares he'll come after you."

The girls' eyes widened and I could tell they were feeling brand new admiration for me. Santi just folded his arms.

"I hate it when you have better ideas than me," he said, echoing himself from the training camp. I suppressed a grin.

Then very loud I said, "See you laters, guys!"

Ellen and I waved and acted all nice and cool as we went toward Chris, where he was with some of the guys watching a video on someone's iPad. When we approached we saw it was a clip of our game from earlier. I got sucked into it and barely noticed him slip away with Elle, and then suddenly I heard a loud smack. The guys I was with and I looked up and saw Jessica had just slapped Santiago straight in the face.

Alright, the Oscar definitely went to her.

She sobbed and turned around and ran into the house in such a dramatic way that it was a shame she wasn't wearing a cape for full effect. Santi's jaw dropped as he lifted a hand gingerly to touch his cheek. That had to hurt. And then I joined in his shock when I saw McCann get up from his chair, leave the beer bottle behind and run after Jessica.

Again Santi's eyes found mine and I could read his mind like an open book.

What the hell?

I grabbed my phone from the little purse I borrowed from Gigi and pointed at it, so he could see it. I texted him, Are you okay?

He pulled his phone out and I saw his fingers fly over the screen in a flurry. I'll see you in the corner behind the a/c unit in 10 secs.

I blinked at the message but when I looked up he was gone.

"Holy shit," one of the younger guys in the team said. "That was intense."

Another one nudged him. "I guess we have a chance with her now, eh?"

I rolled my eyes and didn't even say goodbye when I left them. I found the corner and slipped out of sight, thankful that the a/c was off as all the windows and doors were open. Santi leaned against the wall, rubbing his jaw.

"You shouldn't have put ideas in her head."

I shrugged. "It only seemed fair to me." I looked up at him but in the dark, it was impossible to tell if she'd left a mark. I was suddenly very aware that we were very alone and that his eyes were glowing like a fire had been set off inside of him. "Just call it revenge for all the times I caught you making out with her."

He grabbed my hip and pulled me up against him. I didn't put up any resistance.

"Were you jealous?" he asked, lowering his voice not because he was afraid someone would hear, but because that was what you did when you looked at the lips of the person you were about to kiss.

I did him a favor and licked them. "Hella."

The right corner of his lips quirked up. "Then she was right, I got my end of the bargain."

"Ah hah!" I smacked his chest. His hands sneaked to my back. "You did it on purpose, you jerk. I should be mad — you were driving me mad-"

A weird sound came out of me as he kissed me, mouth open as I'd been about to tell him just how mad I'd been. I felt a burn inside of me as his lips caressed mine. One of his hands held the back of my neck, steadying me as he eased his tongue in my mouth. Our noses bumped for a second, but I didn't care. What I did care was that his other hand was trekking dangerously low. And when he cupped my ass I smacked it away and broke from the kiss.

Lord, it was going to be hard to stay mad at him if he did this every time. I had to teach him a lesson.

"Stop, I'm trying to be mad at you," I said, but my voice broke and rasped and it was damn obvious I was as turned on as a light. "You need to know that what you did was wrong and unnecessary and it hurt me, even though you literally said a week ago that you never want to hurt me."

He expelled a soft breath that fanned my face as he leaned his forehead down on mine. "I'm sorry." He smiled. "But I'm glad it worked."

"Ugh!"

Santi shrugged a little. "Well, you never looked at me before I got with her."

"And let's not forget that time I sew you making out with Gigi."

He shrugged. "She kissed me, actually. Just the one time."

My face crunched up. "But what are you talking about, anyway? I've always looked at you."

"Not the way I wanted." He grabbed my hand and put it on his chest, against his heart. It was strong and fast. He made it strong but I think I made it fast. "I wanted you jealous and mad and I wanted you to show it, so I could know I wouldn't fuck our friendship up if I told you how I felt."

My eyes widened. Butterflies went crazy in my stomach. "How is that?"

His lips parted, but before he was able to talk we heard a crash, laughter and a scream. We looked at each other wondering what was going on.

I shrugged and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Okay, let's ignore that-"

And then someone screamed, "The cops are here!"

i have to admit writing jess's over the top dramatics was hilarious. she's low key a pretty fun character. what are you guys' thoughts about her? especially considering that for most of the story she was the total villainess.

and fyi santi's a conniving little fox, the sweetheart.