Kai presses his lips together as he angles his head so he can look me in the eye. “You asked him if his brownies had pot in it?” he asks, struggling not to laugh.

“Why is that so amusing?” I feel like the butt of a joke I don’t get. “You told me not to eat them, because they have pot in them, right? I just wanted to make sure.”

Kai glances at Bradon, who’s still staring at me like I’ve sprouted a unicorn horn out of my forehead.

“Can I borrow her for the night?” Bradon asks Kai, with his bloodshot eyes drinking in my every move.

“I’m not on loan,” I quip then shrug. “Sorry.”

Kai chokes on a laugh while Bradon blinks at me, confounded.

“Okay, how about we go get you something to drink,” Kai says to me then steers me across the kitchen and away from Bradon.

Once we reach the counter lined with all sorts of different shaped alcohol bottles, he lifts his arm from my shoulders. “So, what’s your drink?” He holds up his hands. “No, wait a minute. Let me guess. A wine cooler.”

“I’ve never had a wine cooler before,” I admit.

He reaches for a bottle filled with red liquid that has tiny little flakes at the bottom, picks it up, pulls a face, and then sets it down. “Then what did you drink while you were overseas?”

“Lots of stuff. Whenever we’d do shots, though, Indigo would always make us do vodka.” I shudder, remembering the scorching burn.

Kai muses over something then moves for the fridge. When he returns, he has a beer in his hand. “How about a beer? I don’t think it’ll make you pull that face you just made when you mentioned vodka.”

I gratefully take the beer and twist the cap off while Kai grabs a plastic cup and fixes himself a drink using soda and whiskey.

“Now what do we do?” I ask as he screws the cap back on the whiskey.

“Whatever you want.” He downs a large swallow from his cup.

I smile artfully at him. “Okay, well if that’s the case then I want to chase a unicorn, run on a rainbow, and swim in a lake made of gold.”

He rolls his eyes at me, but a smile plays at the corners of his lips. “We can do whatever you want within the realm of reality.”

“Reality’s no fun, though.” I pout.

“That’s not true,” he says, his gaze drifting across the room. “I bet you’ve had fun in reality before.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I sip my beer, remembering the time I probably had the most fun. “I did have a lot of fun on my trip.”

“Okay, that’s a starting point.” He swishes around his cup. “What did you do on the trip that was so fun?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I saw a ton of cool stuff and did a crap load of crazy things. You saw the pics on my blog, right?”

“I saw the pics,” he says. “But I want to know about these so-called crazy things you did. Because a lot of those photos were of places. Not you.”

“We did a lot of stuff, but I guess one of my favorite things was when we went clubbing.”

His brows shoot up. “You went clubbing?”

“You don’t have to sound so shocked about it.” I chug down half my beer as my social anxiety jumps onstage and takes me over like a puppet. I know it’s insane, but it feels like his surprise screams, ‘You don’t belong here!’

“I’m sorry,” he tells me sincerely. “You just threw me off. I mean, the Isa I knew didn’t dance.”

“Well, she can dance now.” I straighten my shoulders as the beer swims through my veins. “And let me tell you, she’s awesome.”

“Is that so?” he remarks, rubbing his jawline.

I cringe, seeing where he’s heading with this. “Yeah, but only when I’m in clubs.”

He nods his head at the living room where people are packed together like sardines, grinding together like they’ve been drinking liquid hormones. “This place is kind of club-ish.”

“Not really.” I fight back the panic strangling my throat. “Kai, please don’t make me dance in front of all these people. I know some of them.”

“It’ll be fine. I’ll even dance with you.” He guzzles down a huge mouthful of his drink, tosses the cup into the garbage, threads his fingers through mine, and then hauls me toward the living room.

Before we dive head-on into the dancing orgy, Kai lets go of me and walks over to the stereo system in the corner of the room. Bradon is sitting near it, sipping on a drink. When Kai approaches him and says something, Bradon makes a face and promptly shakes his head.

“No way!” Bradon shouts, standing to his feet and placing himself in front of the stereo. “That’ll never happen, dude.”

“Oh, come on!” Kai begs, reaching for the stereo. “Just let me do it.”

Bradon swats his hand away. “You know I don’t take request like that unless it’s from a hot chick.”

Kai throws a quick glance at me then leans in and says something to Bradon. I don’t know what he’s saying, but I have a feeling he might be using me to get his song request past Bradon.

Bradon frowns but reclines back over the table and presses a few buttons before he sits up. The room grows quiet and people immediately start complaining.

“Turn the fucking music on!” A lanky guy not too far away from me hollers.

“Bradon, quit begin a dick!” a girl wearing a flowing floral dress shouts, red-faced and pissed as hell.

“You owe me, dude,” Bradon grumbles as Kai struts back toward me.

He gives him a thumbs up without turning around, walking right for me. “All right, it’s dancing time,” he says, rubbing his hands together.

“What’d you get him to turn on?” I ask, but then a song clicks on and I have my answer. I giggle. “You picked a Katy Perry song?”

“What? She rocks!” he replies, owning his song choice. He snatches hold of my hand and drags me through the people who’ve started dancing again. “Now come on. You owe me a dance.”

“How do you figure I owe you a dance?” I stumble after him as he shoves his way to the center of the room.

He elbows people out of the way to clear some space then his fingertips press down on my wrist and he spins me around so my back is aligned with his chest. “Because you never gave me the wand you promised me.”

I start to laugh, then stop myself. “You never gave me a chance to give you the wand. Three days after I promised you I’d make you one, you decided you were too cool to walk home with me anymore.”

“I came to your house after that happened,” he says. “You could’ve given it to me then.”

I tip my chin up to look at him. “When did you come to my house?”

“After I told my friend you were stalking me.” Remorse fills his eyes. “I wanted to say sorry. I know it wouldn’t have meant much, since I wasn’t planning on telling people the truth, but I felt bad.”

“Why didn’t I know that you stopped by my house?”

“Probably because Hannah answered the door and I chickened out.”

The mention of Hannah painfully reminds me of the birth certificate and how she put it on my bed for me to find. If she’s trying to get rid of me then that’s probably the tip of the iceberg. Who knows what other kinds of mean games are waiting for me at home?

“Stop overthinking and dance.” He grinds his hips against my backside and I laugh, finding it funnier than I probably should.

But this is Kai, not some random stranger at a club who Indigo roped into dancing with me. Kai, who used to walk home with me, who secretly shared my love for magic, superheroes, and zombies. Who teases me constantly and who pisses me off sometimes.

He seems pretty adamant about dancing with me, though, upping his moves as he grips my hips and pulls me closer.

“Okay, I guess we’re doing this then.” I down the rest of my beer, knowing I’m going to need it, then set the empty beer bottle down on the floor.

Giving one final panicked glance at the people around me, I sway my hips and rock to the beat of the music. I don’t move slowly either. That’s not my style. I may have social anxiety, but give me a drink and some loud music, and I’ll go wild. I’m talking freak out, lose your mind, whip it, shake your groove thang kind of dancing. I blame it on Indigo and the first time we went out clubbing.