“Basketball. College recruiters. It’s your ticket out of here.”
He shook his head. “Nah, dude. You’ve got it all wrong. I don’t want a ticket out of this town. I just wanna a ticket outta this party.”
“You what?”
He was already shaking his head and walking back to the party. “It’s not Savannah. It never was. It’s Ridley, good or bad.” He looked at me like he was telling me he had a fatal disease or something. “I can’t shake it.”
“Shake what, Shrinky Dink?” Ridley was standing with her back against the gate. Unlike the rest of the girls on the squad, she wasn’t wearing her cheer uniform. Her green dress was so tight in some places and slit so high in others, you weren’t exactly sure where to look.
Link moved closer to her. “Come on, Rid. I want to talk to you.”
“That’s not what your little girlfriend said. She said you didn’t want to talk to me. In fact, she told me to get the hell off her property.”
“Savannah’s not my girlfriend.”
I tried to pretend I didn’t know what was about to happen. I tried not to listen, or care.
But I could hear the desperation in Link’s voice. “It’s never been anyone but you.”
“What are you talking about?” She froze, but it was too late.
Link couldn’t stop himself. “Sometimes I think crazy things, like I want to be with you forever. We could live in an RV and see the world. I mean, the parts you can drive to. And you could write songs, and I could play them at gigs. Can’t you see it?”
Ridley’s face looked like it was about to crack into a thousand tiny pieces. “I—don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll be my girl, the way it used to be.”
I could see her wavering, and I realized how hard it must be to be her right now. Because she wasn’t the Ridley she used to be, any more than he was the Link he used to be. Nothing was the same. Not for anyone.
Then she noticed Lena and Liv, watching from one side—and me, standing there on the other. Her face clouded over. Ridley wasn’t going to crack, especially not in front of us. “What are you on, Shrinky Dink?”
“Come on, Rid. You’re my girl. Stop pretending you don’t feel the same way about me.”
“I’m a Siren. I’m nobody’s girl. I don’t feel anything. And I don’t fall in love. I can’t.” She started to back away. “It’s always been just a gig.”
“Rid, you’re not a Siren anymore. You’re never gonna be one again.”
Ridley spun around, her blue eyes raging. “That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not going to be stuck in this pathetic excuse for a town forever. And there’s no way I’m traveling the world in some crappy trailer with you. I have plans.”
“Ridley—” Link sounded miserable.
“Big plans. And I can tell you right now, they have nothing to do with you!” She turned to face the rest of us. “Any of you!”
Link looked like she’d slapped him in the face. For a guy who spent most of his time joking around, I’d never heard him lay it out like that to a girl.
As Ridley walked toward the gate, Link kicked the lawn chair next to him, sending it flying.
Across the yard, Savannah saw her chance, and took it. She smoothed her blond hair and pushed her way through the crowd to Link. She slid her hands up his T-shirt. “Come on, Link. Let’s dance.”
The next minute they were dancing and Savannah was all over him. Lena, Liv, and I stared as if we were watching a three-car pile-up on Route 9. You couldn’t turn away.
Liv scrunched up her nose. “Should we be letting this happen?”
Lena shrugged. “I don’t see what we can do to stop it. Unless you want to go over there.”
“No, thanks.”
That’s when Savannah—who clearly didn’t realize she was dancing with a heartbroken guy whose hopes and dreams of true love and record deals and RV parks across the country had just been shattered—moved in for the kill.