Finding Home by Lauren K. McKellar Page A

heart skipped a beat.
    ‘He totally is.’ I giggled.
    ‘More?’ Lily gestured to my nearly empty glass. I nodded. I wasn’t trying to lose control: I just needed a little bit of liquid confidence to push me across the line, to get me there.
    I busied myself with my phone while Lily disappeared in the direction of the fridge to grab a mixer.
    ‘Amy, hi.’
    I looked up and located the mystery voice. It was Nick.
    ‘Hi.’ I turned back to my phone.
    ‘How you doing?’ he asked. The way he was standing obscured my view of Luke, so I shifted my weight to the right. There, that was better.
    ‘I’m good, you?’ Luke was playing around on his phone now, too. I wondered if he was messaging Coral. Hopefully not.
    ‘Yeah, real good. What are you drinking?’
    ‘I don’t know. Something sweet that Lily made,’ I replied. I barely even noticed when he clinked our glasses together, blocking my view of Luke again. I moved to the left.
    ‘Look, Amy. I was wondering if maybe you’d like to, um, hang out sometime?’
    What? My attention was immediately thrown back into the situation in front of me. I struggled to focus, the two Nicks in front of me blending into one.
    ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. I furrowed my brows, noting that it was a lot harder to do than it seemed to be normally. I must have already drunk a lot.
    ‘I don’t know, I just thought it would be kind of cool to spend some time together.’ Nick took a swig of his drink. ‘You know, outside of school.’
    I didn’t know what to say. I studied his face, looking for a clue about whether this was a joke. But he revealed nothing, his icy blue eyes boring into mine, his pink lips set in a firm line.
    There was no point, I told myself sternly. As much as I was attracted to him, as much as he made me smile, he was a musician. I just couldn’t do it. He wasn’t even that good-looking, anyway. Not in an obvious ‘Luke’ kind of way.
    If I’m not that attracted to him, why am I leaning in his direction? And why am I still staring at his mouth?
    ‘No, I’m sorry.’ The words flew out before I let myself get lost any further in his killer gaze. He was like my dad. And I hated my father.
    ‘Oh,’ Nick said softly. ‘It’s fine, don’t worry about it.’ He gave a slight shrug, but his eyes were no longer smiling. He took a sip of his beer and appeared to find its foamy head very interesting.
    ‘Ugh! Those guys are here.’ I rolled my eyes as I caught a glimpse of the four guys I’d met at the last party. They were gathered around a pool table, laughing as the one who’d tried to kiss me attempted to ride the pool cue.
    ‘Who? Them?’ Nick stepped back, gesturing. At least, I think he was the one who stepped back. Maybe it was me.
    Maybe I have had too much to drink.
    ‘Yeah,’ I affirmed. ‘One of them tried to force me into making out with him, so I bit-him-on-the-tongue.’ The last part came out in a hurry, words rushing together.
    ‘What? He tried to make you kiss him?’ The look on Nick’s face was murderous. His eyebrows were drawn and dark storm clouds were brewing in his eyes.
    ‘Oops!’ I covered my mouth with my hand. ‘Luke said not to tell.’ I hoped spilling this secret to Nick wouldn’t cost me any ground I’d made with Luke. I hadn’t meant to talk about that night. The words had just slipped out, that’s all.
    ‘Why wouldn’t Luke want you to tell anyone you were pretty much assaulted?’ He put a hand on my shoulder, and I shrugged it off.
    ‘Be- cause I’m new and they were just mucking around,’ I explained. I said the words slowly, deliberately, like I was speaking to a child.
    ‘Doesn’t sound like mucking around to me,’ Nick mumbled. He turned to face the group. I was worried he was going to go over there and confront them. I had to think, and fast, before he let it slip that I’d told him the big secret Luke had asked me to keep.
    ‘Look, Nick, have you seen Coral here tonight?’ Even in my drunken