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already. People were everywhere, and it seemed as if Blake knew every single one of them.
    Upstairs in the master suite, Blake slid open the big glass wall and led me out onto the balcony, and Ian and Ross followed us. The view was so amazing that it took my breath away. I asked Blake what it was like to wake up in that bed and see this view every morning, and he turned and looked right at me and said, Why don’t you stay tonight and find out?
    I blushed really hard. I jerked my arm away from him and put my hands up to my cheeks. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help it! I felt so strange inside. Ian laughed and Ross whistled, and I just didn’t understand what was happening. I mean, Blake is very, very handsome, and he’s not that much older than I am. He just turned 20, so he’s like 3 1 / 2 years older than me, but Ireally like Ross, and I couldn’t understand why he was whistling and hooting, and it sort of made me mad at him because I realized that he wasn’t acting like he liked me back very much.
    When we got back downstairs, new people had arrived with bottles of white wine and vodka. Blake led the way into the kitchen, which was as nice as the master bedroom. It was like something out of a magazine. I looked around at all of the people who were there, and I pulled Ross aside while Ian was making us drinks and whispered, WOW we’re like the youngest people here.
    He smiled at me and said, I know! Isn’t it better than those dumb high school parties?
    I stepped out the big glass doors off the kitchen toward the pool to get a closer look. There were already a lot of people outside, and I walked down to the end where the pool seemed to flow over the edge of the cliff and looked past the clear glass partition at the edge of the pool area. The water flowed over a false edge into a trough below where it was sucked back into the pool filtration system. It created a pretty little waterfall.
    When I turned around, there were two girls standing behind me, admiring the view. I say girls, but one was older than the other. She must’ve been in her 30s but she was dressed much younger. Her hair was red, but I don’t think it was her natural color. She was standing next to a tall blond girl who looked like she was about my age, only she had really long legs and wore ashort black dress. She was holding a beer, and she looked like a high schooler on a TV show—you know, one of those shows where high school girls are really pretty and have million-dollar wardrobes and no zits, and they’re constantly getting their moms out of trouble instead of getting into trouble themselves? Anyway, she looked like that, and when I turned around, I realized that she was closer to my age than anyone else at the party besides Ross.
    Both girls smiled and said hi. The blond girl told me her name was Lauren. I introduced myself and then turned back to follow her gaze back out across the water. We both stared for a minute in silence, and then she said how amazing this place was. I smiled and agreed. The redhead said her name was Diane and asked who I was there with. I told her I was there with Ross. She asked if that was the guy who came with Ian, and I said yes. Lauren asked me how long I’d known Ross, and I told her we’d been going out for a couple of weeks. This made Diane start laughing really hard, and Lauren sort of looked at me like she felt sorry for me and elbowed Diane in the ribs.
    I asked what was so funny. Lauren looked at me and said: Ross is gay.
    I stood there at the end of the pool, and the first thought I had when she said it was that I was glad there was a glass partition behind me to keep me from falling over the edge of the cliff. I. COULDN’T. BELIEVE IT.
    Diane was still laughing and told Lauren to come inside with her because there were a bunch of people Diane needed to introduce her to. She tried to grab Lauren’s arm, but Lauren didn’t even look at