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“Yeah.” I tried for a smile that totally wobbled.
“You still want that sweet sixteen kiss?” he asked me, his goofy grin prompting a real one to turn up my lips.
“Of course.”
“Then I’ll just have to throw a party Saturday night because I’ve been looking forward to that day for half my life.”
“Her mom will never let her go,” Jenny said with a laugh from my other side.
“So, she can say she’s sleeping over at your house, and the two of you can sneak out,” Devon said with a shrug.
I considered his suggestion while opening my locker and unloading my backpack. Jenny did the same as me, but Devon lingered as though waiting for an answer while dozens of kids rushed past toward their homerooms.
“I’m always up for a sleepover,” Jenny said, shoving her coat into her locker. “We can hang at my house, tell my parents we’re going to watch a movie in my room, then lock ourselves away. There are no cameras at our place, so sneaking out my bedroom window and across the yard won’t be a problem.”
“And how do you suggest we get to Devon’s?” I asked with more snark than she deserved. “Sure, it’s warming up a bit outside, but while I love walking, two miles in the dark? No thanks.”
“I’ll have my older brother drive over to pick you up.”
I shut my locker and turned to face Devon. Guess he wanted that kiss pretty badly if he offered the older brother he couldn’t stand. “You’d really ask him to do that for me?”
“Addilyn, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do for you.” His goofy, adoring grin returned.
One of my best friends, the guy who’d begged me to be his girlfriend since grade school, was going to give me my birthday wish.
I nodded, feeling lighter than I had in weeks. Months.
“Okay.” I glanced at Jenny. “Okay. It’s a plan. We’re going to lie and sneak out like real teenagers.”
“That’s my girl.” Devon bumped my elbow and scurried away.
“I’m not your girl,” I muttered to myself.
“That boy is so far gone on you.”
I snorted at Jenny, both of us turning toward our homeroom. “Since the second grade when I tripped him by accident while playing tag.”
“He scraped up his knee,” Jenny said.
“And laying there on the ground he told me—”
“—I think I like you,” we both said at the same time and laughed.
Poor guy. I was half tempted to agree to be his girlfriend just for being so faithful. Devon. The one guy friend I had and the only person besides Jenny I could count on.
A shiver slid down my spine, and I glanced over my shoulder while walking into class.
Gideon studied me from where he stood by his locker.
I lifted my chin and turned away, refusing to admit to myself I could count on him too.
I waited until Thursday night after dinner to attempt to set my plan into place. Mother had two glasses of wine with her meal and a third settled in her hand as she and Lloyd headed to the parlor. She’d smiled a few times at dinner while speaking with her doting husband, and I thought I might stand a chance of getting her to agree.
The birthday hadn’t been a topic of conversation in three days, and with all the sudden drinking, maybe she’d forgotten what day Saturday was to me.
“Oh, I wanted to ask if I could sleep over at Jenny’s on Saturday,” I said, stopping at the stairs leading to the second floor, one foot on the bottom riser.
Mother and Lloyd paused in their walk to the parlor, both glancing my way.
