It’s ridiculous. The kiss caught us both by surprise, I can tell. I need to give Ash time. Give time to both of us, because our relationship is changing. It began changing the moment our lips touched.

Dylan reaches us. A frown mars his forehead. “Have you seen Tessa? I can’t find her anywhere.”

“Is she okay?” I ask, getting up, his worried face getting through my tangled thoughts. “Why are you looking for her?”

He rubs the back of his head. “Someone told me she got into Ray’s car and he took her for a spin. I don’t trust him. With his car or her.”

Ray was the guy I saw her with earlier. I didn’t know he was bad news. “Did you try her cell?” I fumble with mine as I ask.

“I did. She’s not answering.”

I try nevertheless, but yeah, no answer. “Let’s go.”

We wander the yard and the house, looking, hoping she’s there somewhere. Feels like a deja vu from before. Zane and Rafe join the search, but the results are zilch.

“We’ll take the car,” Rafe says. “We’ll drive around until we find them.”

“Fucker, you can’t do that.” Zane raps a fist on Rafe’s shoulder. “If anything happens, if the cops stop us, you’ll never hear the end of it from your folks.”

“I don’t care. Dylan’s right, Ray’s kinda crazy and he likes racing. It’s dangerous.”

We’re gathered at the garden gate. The party continues behind us, loud and joyful. I try Tessa’s number again and again, fear wrapping icy fingers around me. What if something happened? What if Ray crashed the car? What if...

No. “I’ll call a taxi and we’ll go around looking for them,” I say. I sound calm and reasonable in my ears. How did this happen? How did I go from planning Tessa and Dylan’s magical kiss to fearing for her life?

I try not to think about me and Ash, the kiss we shared. It was magical. It was all I ever thought it would be.

Rafe tugs on my arm and the sound of a car engine cuts through my thoughts. Everyone rushes down the street as a red, beaten-up Honda races toward us.

I’m going out on a limb here, assuming this is Ray’s car, otherwise I don’t get the excitement.

It all gets more interesting when the car comes to a sudden stop and the door opens, spewing out Tessa. She slams the door shut and starts toward the house with long, angry strides.

Then she sees us and hesitates.

Dylan doesn’t, though. He jogs over to her and grabs her arms. “Tess, what happened? Did he do anything to you? Are you okay?”

Like Ash had asked me earlier, when I fell. My chest tightens again, and although I want to run to Tess and ask her the question myself, I stay where I am.

Because the way Dylan is holding her is nothing short of desperate, and the way she leans into him is sweet.

Maybe my unplanned plans aren’t really needed. I grin as Tessa mumbles something in Dylan’s shirt, the words muffled. He turns to glare at the car which is rolling away again, Ray not even coming out, and then puts his hand on Tessa’s hair and whispers something back.

Whatever happened in the car can’t be so bad, then. I breathe a sigh of relief and happiness as Dylan steers Tessa toward the house, and our little search party starts to disperse.

I turn to Ash.

He isn’t there.

I blink. He was right here, like, a second ago. Where did he go? I scan the party crowd. Rafe is dragging Zane toward the house, and Dylan is leading Tessa to the back of the yard, and I hope a kiss will be the next step, but Ash...

I finally make out his dark head among the people milling in the yard. He’s heading toward to the coolers.

Heading away from me.

I walk after him. We need to talk. I need to see him, see his face, his eyes; to read in his gaze that it wasn’t just me. That he felt it, too.

But by the time I catch up with him, he’s talking to another girl, and he keeps his back to me, even when I call his name and tap on his shoulder.

I thought I was invisible to him before. That doesn’t compare to now, when I seem to be insubstantial, as well. I’m a ghost to Ash. I don’t exist.

My heart crumbles. I can’t take this. It’s too much. I turn around and leave, leave the party, leave Ash.

I’ve never cried so hard before. It’s as if I can’t stop. Mom and dad try to get me to talk, to tell them what happened. Maybe when the tears stop, I will.

It takes time. Because as the days pass, my hope that Ash will realize his mistake, that he’ll come to me, fades. When I ask Tessa if he still looks my way, if he still has this heat in his gaze when I’m turned away, she shakes her head.

It’s all over. Not a word about what happened between us, about the way he kissed me, so desperately, so intensely.

That’s the beginning of the end. The end of our friendship, of the magic the kiss promised. Of my confidence. Of my belief.

I thought kisses were magical. That I’d know the moment I kissed Ash if he was the one for me.

And I was sure it worked. I knew—or thought I did—that he’s the one. I felt it in my bones.

But I was wrong.

THE END