I followed Sadie past the living room and into the bathroom. It must’ve been serious. Bathroom meetings were in the red zone of our emergency alert system.

“What’s going on?” I asked as she shoved me in and shut the door behind us.

“Matt looks so good tonight,” she said, shoulders slumped as she leaned against the sink.

“Okay. Would you like to elaborate? Or did you shove me in here just to drool?” I put the toilet seat down and took a seat.

“I think he might have been flirting with me, like seriously flirting with me, but I’m not sure.” She bit her nail and I knew she was analyzing every gesture and every facial expression he’d made during their conversation.

“What did he do?” I asked, wanting her to get out of the dangers of her own mind.

“He rested his arm on my shoulder and told me I was the perfect height. So I laughed. Then he said my laugh is cute. I said thank you, because let’s face it, I didn’t know what else to say. What do you say to that? Anyway, then Scott asked him if he could go to his car and get him his lucky scarf, you know the one he uses to wrap around the mike as if he’s Steven Tyler or something. And then Matt asked me to go with him.”

“And?” I asked, moving to the edge of the toilet seat.

She tossed her hands up in the air. “And I ran in the kitchen and grabbed you.”

“Why would you do that?” I asked. Was she crazy? It’s not like they’d never been alone together. Hell, they texted on a daily basis and carpooled all the time.

“I panicked. I didn’t know what to do.” Her head dropped into her hands and bent forward, black hair falling over her knees.

She was beautiful and usually confident, strong, and smart, yet she was letting a longtime crush get the best of her. This girl with her head hanging in defeat was not the vibrant, flirtatious Sadie I knew.

I stood up and pointed to the door. “Go with him to his car.”

“But then we’ll be alone and . . .”

“Sadie, you guys have been alone before,” I said, hoping she would catch on to how ridiculous she was being.

“I know, but . . . I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s like I’ve never flirted with a guy before. I’ve had a bunch of boyfriends.”

“Yeah, you’re a whore,” I said with a smile.

“Shut up.” She shoved my shoulder.

“Sade, you like him. All those other guys you dated, you liked the way they looked and that was it. Probably why none of them stuck around long. Matt’s more than that to you and that’s why you’re so unsure of yourself. You’re scared of losing him. But don’t be. You are beautiful, intelligent, and just plain awesome. And besides, I know he likes you too.”

“Really?” Her gray eyes widened.

“For the gazillionth time, YES! Now go!”

“Okay, I’m going. Thanks, Liz.” She threw her arms around my neck, her bracelets jangling.

“You’re welcome. Now please just go.” I opened the door and pointed my finger outwards.

“Love you,” she said as she skipped by.

“I know. Hurry before you lose your nerve or your chance.” Before she disappeared behind the living room wall she rolled her eyes in my direction. I had to love her.

With Sadie on her mission, Joe still setting up with the band, and Josh talking video games with Zach, I really had no one to talk to. It was already ten p.m., and other than the band and my friends, not a single person had shown up. How pathetic do you have to be to have a party and not have anyone show up? I mulled the question over in my head while I sat on the couch across the room from the bickering band.

When at ten thirty hit, there was finally a knock at the door—I couldn’t jump off the couch fast enough. Maybe I wasn’t as pathetic as I thought. I opened the door to find Tanya and Vicky. Okay, maybe I was. I didn’t close the door when I saw our neighbors’ doors were already opened.

“Hey guys,” I said. “Party’s this way.” When they stepped in, I felt the need to say, “Still waiting for everyone to show up.”

“See! Even when we try to be fashionably late it backfires,” Vicky said, her newly manicured hand resting on the waist of her designer jeans.

“Well, we tried and besides, it’s not like we were the first ones here.” Tanya tossed her head in the direction of the band, then looked back to the far corner where Sadie and Matt were laughing. I gave an exaggerated smile when Sadie turned my way, which she acknowledged with an eyebrow-raise then quickly dismissed before Matt could notice the two of us communicating.

“Yeah, and you have first dibs on drinks,” I said, trying to be a good hostess.

“See, Vicks, she has a point,” Tanya said. “A good one. What do you have to drink?” She walked towards the kitchen as if she had been in my apartment before.

“Beer, beer and more beer, but I also have a few hidden bottles of wine that I’d be willing to share.” There was no reason for me to hold anything against her. Why wouldn’t she be crushing on Zach? He was a good catch. At least until he stopped calling.

“Oh, I would love some wine,” Vicky said, catching up with Tanya.

Tanya looped her arm through Vicky’s. “Me too.”

“Then follow me.” It was perfect timing. The band had just started tuning up, and I didn’t know how much of that my ears could take. I gave Sadie a wink as I walked by, but she was too engrossed in Matt to notice. “It’s right in here,” I said, stepping into the kitchen, where Zach and Josh were still discussing video games. Seriously, how long can two relatively grown boys talk video games?

Zach had sat on one of the stools and his hands were moving as he explained something to Josh.

“Oh, Zach, I didn’t know you were here already!” Tanya squeaked right before she jumped into Zach’s lap. Blech.

“Hey, when’d you get here?” he asked, looking a bit shocked to have her on top of him. His gaze drifted to me for a second before returning to Tanya.

“Like not even five minutes ago,” she responded. Her arms wrapped around his neck and then she kissed him. Okay, it was on the cheek, but still. I could feel Josh staring at me but I refused to glance back.

Vicky exhaled loudly. “God, can you guys get a room? Sheesh.”

I was starting to like Vicky even more.

“Where’s that wine, Liz?” she asked, drumming her fingers on the counter.

“Oh. Yeah. Right here.” I bent down to the cabinet beneath the sink, pulled out a bottle, and handed it over to Vicky.

“Do you have a corkscrew?” she asked.

“Um . . .” I opened the drawer with the plastic utensils. Nothing. I moved to the next. Nothing. The junk drawer was corkscrewless too. Shoot. What good was wine if you don’t have something to get the cork out?

“Do you have a phone book?” Zach asked, peering around Tanya’s curls.

“Why? Do you plan on calling a corkscrew delivery service?” I asked as I continued to search the drawers.

“Umm no. Do you have one or not?” he said, clearly annoyed.

“Yeah, under the coffee table in the—

“I know where it is,” he said, and the way he said it, like he knew my place better than I did, made me want to smack him.

I opened drawer after drawer and cabinet after cabinet to no avail. No corkscrew. No wine.

“Give me the bottle,” I heard Zach say. I turned to find him holding the yellow pages.

“Do you plan on beating the cork out?” I asked, crossing my arms across my chest.

“Actually that is exactly what I plan on doing,” he said.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No. I saw it on YouTube. Trust me.” He passed me and stopped in front of the wall.

“He’s obsessed with ‘How-to’ videos on YouTube.” Tanya tossed her red curls over her shoulder and sat down on a stool. “He’s always showing them to me in class.”

Ugh. She thought she knew everything about him.

“Can’t be as bad as his video game obsession,” I said, trying to cover my discomfort with a laugh.

“Oh my God! I swear that controller’s attached to his hand. Every time I call he’s like, ‘Let me call you back, I’m on a mission in the Middle East and I need to drag my comrades to safety.’”

“And don’t walk in front of him if he’s playing Wii,” I added. “You’ll wind up with a black eye.”

“I’m standing right here, you know,” Zach said, holding his arms out with the yellow pages in one hand the wine bottle in the other.

I smiled at Tanya then turned to Zach. “We know. Go beat the bottle or whatever. We’re talking.” He shook his head and turned away.

I went to go back to our conversation, but I watched Zach out of the corner of my eye. He held the yellow pages on the wall next to the doorway then took the wine bottle in his hand, neck facing away from the book, and began hitting the bottle against the book.

He was kidding, right? There was no way in hell this was going to work. I’d be cleaning up shards of glass and wine off the floor before I knew it. Then, little by little, with each hit against the book, the cork slowly made its way out until I heard a pop.

I was impressed, but I wouldn’t show it. Josh threw his arms up in victory and patted Zach on the back for a job well done. Zach was proud and didn’t hide it. Neither did Tanya, who thanked Zach by planting another sloppy kiss on his cheek. He held the bottle out with the hand that wasn’t wrapped around her waist, and Vicky grabbed it.

“Glasses?” she asked.

“Right here.” I got three down and handed them to Vicky. She poured a little in the first, lifted it to her lips, and downed the liquid in one sip before continuing to pour.

“Bottoms up,” she said and handed me a glass before taking another huge sip out of her own. I sensed she wasn’t as thrilled about being at the party as Tanya.