Page 24 of The Bad Boyfriend Curse
My parents don’t let me go there at night
I squeeze my lips together. I really want to get out of the house—I’m sick of hearing Mom stress about this party—and Mom said she didn’t have location tracking on my new phone, so who could it hurt if she doesn’t know about Donut Den?
“Sadie, Liv, Quinn, James, Reagan, and Kaitlyn,” I say. “Sadie says they’re hanging out at Sadie’s grandma’s… Wait, aren’t they in Spain?”
“My parents let Sadie and her friends hang out at their house in the summer in return for watering their plants,” Jason explains. “And I know all those kids’ parents. Meera should be fine with them.”
Mom still looks suspicious. I’ve never lied to Mom about where I’m going because I’ve never had to, but she also usually doesn’t even ask because she trusts me. I want to remind her that I haven’t had toaskher to go out in Toronto for over a year, but I don’t want to give her a reason to say no.
Mom sighs, finally agreeing. “Text me when you get there, and don’t drink or do drugs. If you’re uncomfortable, call me and I’ll come and get you.”
I sigh. “I know, Mom.” I text Sadie that I’m allowed to go, then run up two stairs at a time to change.
Sadie’s grandma’s house turns out to be closer than I expected. After Liv picks me up, we’re at the house in about one minute. It’s smaller than Jason’s and has a perfectly manicured lawn and gardens and a brick path to the front door. Inside it’s clean with a shiny new marble-and-stainless-steel kitchen, but the decor is a bitold lady. Sadie immediately starts taking things out of the fridge. “Mom stocked up on drinks and snacks. Help yourself. The others will be here soon.”
“Oh, by the way,” I say, chuckling nervously, “I know I asked you before to keep this thing with Noah a secret, but I want to make sure—”
“Don’t worry, Meera!” Sadie says, smiling. “We’re family now. We’re not going to say anything about your big date tomorrow. Right, Liv?”
“Absolutely.” Liv mimes zipping her mouth shut.
When the others arrive, they have boxes of pizza and more drinks… includingwine. I tense. I’ve seen teens drink before, but I’ve never tried it. Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to this.
“Sadie and Liv!” James says. “And your big-city cousin! I’m starving, and the smell of this pizza has been killing me.”
We sit at the dining table, and I end up next to Quinn. Up close his eyes are the exact same shade of blue as Jason’s swimming pool, and he’s wearing a blue-and-white-stripedsweatshirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. He’s drinking red wine from a wineglass, which makes him look even more like a magazine model.
I’m so distracted by being close to a guy this hot that I barely notice when James pushes a disposable cup of wine in front of me with a slice of cheese pizza. I have no idea what’s wrong with me lately. Getting hit with the curse seems to have opened the floodgates of my attraction to boys. I touch the eye pendant on my necklace, reminding myself that I am stronger than the curse.
I look around at the others. They’re drinking too, also in red Solo cups instead of wineglasses. Not Liv, or Kaitlyn, though, who drove here. But even Sadie, who’s younger than me, is drinking. I know I’ll seem like a naïve child if I push my cup away, so I don’t do anything. Maybe no one will notice that I’m not drinking from it. It’s not like they asked if I wanted one.
“So how long are you going to be in Cherrybridge?” Quinn asks me.
“Just for the summer.”
He smiles. “We’ll be leaving Cherrybridge at the same time, then.”
“Oh, where are you going?”
“University of Toronto. I graduated high school in June.”
So Quinn is Noah’s age? I don’t know what to say next because Quinn’s eyes are way too blue and distracting. I absently take a sip of my drink, completely forgetting it’swine. Thankfully, I don’t make a fool of myself by spitting it out, but I wince. It’s way more sour than I thought it would be.
“You’ll have to show me the cool spots in Toronto when I get there,” Quinn says. “The only places I go with my parents are museums and restaurants. I’m sure you know more about the underground scene.”
“Oh, yeah. U-um,” I stutter. How would I know anything about anundergroundscene in Toronto? I’m a nerd who takes pictures of buildings for fun. “I guess. I can show you Chinatown?”
Kaitlyn suddenly shakes her hands in a hurry-up motion. “We’re wasting time, guys. I’ve been practicing all week. Drink up. We need to get to Donut Den!”
“Relax, Kait,” Reagan says, swirling her cup. “Open mic doesn’t even start till nine.”
“What’s the open mic for?” I ask. “Is it a comedy thing?” I have a friend from school who’s trying to be a stand-up comedian, and he dragged us all to an open mic afternoon at a comedy club once.
“Nah, music,” James says. “Kaitlyn wants to be the next Taylor Swift.”
Kaitlyn rolls her eyes at that. “My style is more Sabrina Carpenter than Taylor Swift.” She looks at me with an excited grin on her face. “So, like, Donut Den started these music open mic nights once a week a few months ago. I never bothered to go because I figured it would all be, like, country or rock or something. But apparently a music scout from Toronto showed up last month and offered someone some big gig in Montreal. This is the first week I’m free to go to an open mic night.”
Noah said that Cherrybridge still has a bit of a musicscene, but it seems a little odd that a music scout would come to acoffee shop. “Who was scouted?”
