The Year I Became Isabella Ande (Sunnyvale #1) - Jessica Sorensen Page 0,60

Hannah from picking on me,” I tell him. “There was this one time when he even stopped his own friends from picking on me. A couple of his football buddies had me cornered because Hannah basically had a choke collar on them. He came up and said something about them being late for practice so they’d have to leave.”

“He should have called them out on what they were doing, not just fed them a lame-ass excuse to make them stop without making himself look bad.” He makes another turn, this time down a street lined with single-story, seventies-style homes.

“You didn’t do that for me, either.” I clench my hands into fists as they begin to tremble.

I hate memory lane. Let’s not go there ever again.

“Yeah, well, I was a fucking asshole back then. Still am most of the time. I don’t want to be when I’m around you, though.” He parks the car along the curb at the end of a very long line of vehicles. “My brother, on the other hand, walks around pretending he’s all high and mighty, when really, he’s a fucking arrogant prick who always puts himself first.”

He slides the keys out of the ignition. “You may not want to believe this, but you’re too sweet and smart for Kyler. It’ll never work out.” He shoves open the door to get out. “He’d be better off with your sister. The two of them are pretty much the same, except your sister doesn’t give a shit that people think she’s a douche.”

With that, he climbs out of the car, leaving me to wonder if he’s right. Could Kyler really be the asshole Kai seems to think he is?

Chapter 16

I’ve seen a ton of movies that featured high school parties. I figured the rowdy, loud music and tons of people crammed into a house were Hollywood’s played-up versions. When I catch sight of the single-story home the party is taking place at, though, I start to think the movies nailed it dead-on.

The small living room is jam-packed with sweaty, unruly, stupidly silly drunk people. Music is booming and vibrates the floors. The smell of sweat, beer, and cigarette smoke laces the air. And I’m pretty sure I just stepped in a puddle that I think might be urine.

“Ew!” I shiver as I stare down at the yellow puddle on the linoleum floor.

I’m distracted just long enough by the grossness that when I look up, I’ve lost Kai in the crowd. I stand on my tiptoes, panicking as my gaze surfs the crowd. There are just too many people to tell who’s who.

“I’m never going to find him.” Those old feelings of ridicule sneak up on me, and I hug my arms around myself, noting every glance in my direction.

They have to be staring at me. And you want to know why, Isabella? Because they know you don’t belong here.

“Hey, I know you, right?” Bradon, Kai’s friend and the guy throwing this shindig, stumbles through the crowd and stops in front of me. He has overly long hair, his eyes are red, and his clothes smell like smoke with a kick. “You’re that chick from my school.”

I want to point out there are a lot of chicks who go to our school here, but I’m guessing I’ll probably just confuse him.

“Yeah, sure.”

“You know Kai, right?” He wags a finger at me. “You’re that girl who was by his locker.”

Great. I went from being That Chick at School to being That Girl by Kai’s Locker.

I stick out my hand to properly introduce myself so he’ll stop giving me lame nicknames. “I’m Isa.”

He eyeballs my hand, then wraps his fingers around mine, brings them to his lips, places a kiss on my skin, and then licks me like a dog.

I screech, loud enough to make a scene, and people glance our way. Apparently, drunk people have a short attention span, though, because five seconds later, they’re all doing their own thing again.

“Sorry. I couldn’t help it.” He laughs at me as I wipe my hand on the side of my skirt. “I’ve never had a girl try to shake my hand before.”

“If it happens again, you should probably just shake it back,” I offer.

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” He noticeably checks me out before peering around the crowd. “So, did Kai come with you or what?”

I inch forward as a guy staggers past me and jabs his elbow into my back. “Yeah, he did. I don’t know where he is,