He's So Not Worth It

It took way longer to get to LBI than usual. People can’t drive for shit in the rain. There were all these accidents and people were, like, doing twenty-five whenever they came to a frickin’ puddle. But whatever; I was there now. At Hammond’s. And from the look of it, everyone else was too. There were cars parked everywhere—in the driveway, in the street, in front of the neighbor’s driveway—like everyone knew they were in for the night so it didn’t matter if they blocked in everyone else. I took a deep breath and looked at myself in the mirror. My heart was pounding a mile a second.Ally was inside. I was going to see Ally.Probably should’ve used that four hour drive to figure out what to say to her.Shit. Whatever. Let’s get this over with.I got out of the car, pulled my hood over my head, and ran through the rain. When I shoved the sliding glass door open, a bunch of adults turned to look. Like I was some homeless guy crashing their party. They were all wearing linen pants and sandals and jewelry, and there was me in my coffee-stained shorts and crappy kicks.“Dude! You made it!”Hammond came outta nowhere and slapped my hand. He had a cup full of beer in his other hand and he was wearing a pink polo shirt. Where the hell does he get these clothes?“Hey. Yeah.” I glanced around the room. Ally’s mom and Dr. Nathanson were over by the bar, and I saw Faith’s mom and the Idiot Twins’ parents, and Qui

“Jake!”The word exploded from my mouth before I fully registered that he was actually there. He held his right hand in his left. Both were shaking.“Ow! Son of a bitch!”He whirled away, flinging his hand out, cursing under his breath. Then Hammond came jogging up the steps.“Dude! Did you really just punch the wall?”For me. Jake Graydon had just punched a wall for me. I felt this euphoric rush and then Cooper stood up next to me, and suddenly Faith was there also, wrinkling her nose at the house and cringing away from the rotted porch railing. And the rush crashed spectacularly.What the hell were they all doing here?“You’re bleeding!” Faith exclaimed with another nose wrinkle.Blood ran in a trickle from Jake’s knuckle and splattered the floorboards between his feet. Jake just stared at me. At my lips. Which still tasted like Cooper’s ChapStick. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, I felt like a cheating slut. But Jake was not my boyfriend. He was not.He was just the guy who’d punched a wall over me.“You should really get some ice for that, man,” Cooper said.“Who the fuck are you?” Jake spat.Cooper tilted his head quizzically. Like he had just been faced with some exotic and heretofore unidentified breed of asshole. “I’m the guy who was invited here. Who the fuck are you?”Jake took a menacing step forward, so Cooper did the same. Hammond’s hand instantly shot out, pressing against Cooper’s chest. This was going nowhere good, and it was going there fast.“Back off, loser,” Hammond spat.“These are them, aren’t they?” Cooper said with a laugh.“Them, who?” Jake said, his eyes darting to me.“The Cresties.” Cooper did air quotes. He was cackling now.“What the fuck do you know about it?” Hammond asked, shifting so his entire forearm was against Cooper’s chest now. Cooper jostled back, then shoved himself forward. Their feet scuffled against the floor. My heart throbbed behind my eyes.“Guys!” I shouted, putting my hands up. They froze. “We’re not going to do this.”“Do what?” all three of them said in unison.Like they didn’t know.“Ally, why don’t you just come back with us?” Faith said plaintively. “We could all hang out! Maybe we could go to Café Bacci and—”“Just stop, all right?” I blurted. “I don’t want to hang out with you. Not any of you! Take the hint already.”Faith’s face sort of crumpled and Cooper laughed. But I couldn’t stand there and try to make her feel better. I’d finally told her the actual truth. I took Jake’s wrist and pulled him down the steps. It was just drizzling now, and the water cooled my adrenaline-flushed face.“What are you doing here?” I asked through my teeth.“I came down to . . . I don’t know . . . to talk to you,” he said, looking past me with venom in his eyes, I can only assume at Cooper. “And then I find you . . .” He gritted his teeth and shook his head. “What the hell is up, Ally? Are you, like, with that guy?”“I don’t know . . . maybe,” I said.His jaw dropped and he took a step back. “Are you kidding me?”“Me? What about you? I haven’t heard two words from you since I left. . . . No wait, since Sha