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say.
    “It’s good.” I grinned and looked up.
    She wasn’t alone this time. Beside her stood a tall, lanky guy with a beanie on his head and a faded Disturbed T-shirt on. Another guy with long black hair stood behind them.
    “We’re adopting you,” Emily said as she sat down across from me. Disturbed T-shirt and long-haired guy followed suit.
    “I wasn’t aware I was an orphan,” I said, taking another bite of my Salisbury steak.
    “This is my boyfriend, Blake,” Emily said, ignoring my comment. “And that’s Tom.”
    “’Sup?” Blake said.
    I nodded in response to him and once in Tom’s direction; he nodded right back and took a bite of his Salisbury steak. So far I seemed to have something in common with each of them—Blake and I both seemed to share the same taste in music, Emily and I both liked Jules (although it was in different ways), and Tom and I both seemed to like Salisbury steak. I could work with this little group.
    “What happened to your face?” Emily wondered, her big brown eyes grazing over my bruises.
    I dropped my eyes to my food and shoved a bite of mashed potatoes into my mouth. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
    “Okay.” Emily shrugged. “So, have you talked to Julie yet?”
    I swallowed another forkful of mashed potatoes and shrugged my shoulders. “Yeah, some,” I answered, remembering Thursday night a little more.
    Emily scrunched up her face. “She hasn’t said a word about you yet, at least not to me.”
    I frowned. Was this a bad sign? That Jules hadn’t even told her best friends she’d noticed I’d moved back.
    “It’s probably nothing. Julie isn’t one for gossip or any of that crap, so I wouldn’t worry about it,” Emily offered.
    Didn’t matter. It still irked me that she hadn’t spoken to her friends about me yet. At all.
    “I got an idea,” Blake said. “Drew Carter’s having this party on Friday night. We should all go.”
    Emily shoved Blake playfully and a large smile came to her face. “That’s a great idea! Julie hasn’t been to a party with us in ages! You’ll have to meet us there, Nick. Then the two of you can talk,” Emily said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively at me.
    I looked to Blake. “I bet this one is hard to keep up with,” I said, pointing to Emily.
    “You have no idea.” He smirked. “I’ve definitely got my hands full.”
    “Whatever, I’m just excited that’s all,” Emily muttered, looking irritated.
    “Don’t believe her,” Quiet Tom said, never raising his eyes from his tray of food. “She’s like this all the time.”
    I chuckled and took a swig of my milk. Yep, I could deal with having this as my crew. And going to a party on Friday night sounded a lot better than sitting at home again, especially if Jules was going to be there. Well, possibly anyway. Now at least I had something to look forward to—even if it was four freaking days away.
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
     
    JULIE
     
    “I don’t know. I’ll have to check and see if I work that night,” I said reluctantly. I didn’t care for parties much.
    “Please just ask off if you do,” Emily pleaded.
    I smiled at her persistence. “All right,” I promised, wondering why she wanted me to go so badly. I seriously hoped her and Tiffany weren’t secretly attempting to set me up with someone, again.
    They’d tried that once. And now the guy was my mom’s pill dealer.
    Vincent had been it . At least I’d thought. Jet black hair, deep blue eyes, an eyebrow piercing, and arms covered in tattoos. He had also been nineteen with a car. Heaven. That was what I’d thought he was, anyway.
    I was stupid to think that a guy like that would actually like a girl like me—a baggy-sweater-wearing girl who liked to keep to herself and had a nervous/shy streak that came out around guys like him. Vincent had been able to see through all of that and see the real me. I’d opened up to him in ways I’d never opened up to any guy besides Nick