10 Blind Dates - Ashley Elston Page 0,3

the shop. I’m not sure she can get away.”

Addie’s eyes brighten; then she starts dragging me to the pool house. “We’ll just have to find a way to break her out of there.”

“Have you seen Griffin?” I ask, changing the subject away from Olivia.

“Not yet, but Danny and I just got here. Maybe he’s inside.” She nods toward the pool house. “Want a beer?”

“Nah, I have to drive to Nonna’s soon. I’ll find a bottle of water somewhere,” I say as we part ways. Addie heads to the keg hidden in the shrubbery and I push through the crowd. The music is so loud once I get inside that the first few people I talk to can’t hear me at all.

I finally make it through the room and find a few of Griffin’s friends.

“Sophie! What’s up!” Chris yells, then tries to hug me. He’s already down to his white undershirt and boxer shorts. I hold my arm out to keep him at a safe distance. Chris is the guy that always manages to get one step from naked at parties. At the school Halloween dance, he came dressed as a cowboy, but by the end of the night all that was left of his costume was the pair of chaps over his boxer briefs. He got a week’s worth of detentions for indecent exposure.

“Not much. Where’s Griffin?” I ask, then turn around to scope out the room.

Chris waves his hand behind him. “Somewhere back there. Went looking for a beer.”

I nod, then scoot around him. It’s hard to make any progress through the crowd, but I finally spot Griffin just as he turns into the small kitchen in the back of the pool house. It takes me a few minutes to catch up, since I stumbled into the middle of a dance circle and Josh Peters won’t let me leave without spinning me around a few times. As I’m just about to round the corner into the kitchen, where the music is actually somewhat muted, I hear Griffin say, “Sophie’s on her way.”

It’s not the words that make me stop. It’s the way he says them. Full of disappointment.

Parker, one of Griffin’s best friends, is pulling two beers out of the refrigerator. Neither one of them notices me just outside the door.

“I thought she was going to her sister’s house or something?” Parker asks.

Griffin’s head hangs. “She was. But not anymore.”

He’s so bummed I’m staying, like I’ve ruined his break. I can hear it in his voice, that horrible feeling—the one where you were so looking forward to something, like you were about to bust out of your skin because you were so happy, only to have it snatched away. That’s how I felt when I thought I wouldn’t be here for the break.

And that’s how he sounds after hearing I will be here.

What is happening?

Griffin starts to turn, and I duck around the corner. Why am I hiding? I should be storming in there, demanding answers. But I’m frozen. I count to five and then slowly look back into the kitchen.

“She’ll be here any minute,” he says, but stays rooted in his spot.

Parker pops open one of the beers and hands it to Griffin. Griffin takes a long drink.

“So what’s the problem?” Parker asks. Obviously he can hear the disappointment, too.

Griffin shrugs. “This is going to make me sound like an asshole, but I was kind of glad she was going to be gone. You know, like a trial run of what it would be like if we broke up.”

My heart is pounding.

“Do you want to break up with her?” Parker asks, then takes another swig of his beer.

Griffin shrugs again. My desire to scream is almost overwhelming.

“I think so.”

I gasp. Parker and Griffin both turn toward the door. Parker’s eyes get big, and he looks from me to Griffin and back to me.

There’s a split second where Griffin tries to figure out if I heard what was said. But the expression on my face makes it obvious that I did.

I stumble back, hitting the wall before fleeing.

I have to get out of here. I can’t look at him. I can’t be here.

“Sophie!” Griffin follows behind me, but I duck and dodge my way toward the door. I’m afraid I won’t make it outside before the tears start to fall. Then Addie sees my face and barrels through the people dancing, pulling me out of the pool house.

“What happened?” she asks once we’re on the other side of the