“I just thought I heard...”
“Boys!” A voice called from downstairs. “Are you home?”
Jude’s face paled. “George.”
“George?” I asked. “Who’s?—”
“You have to go.” Jude grabbed my hands and pulled me off the bed, and pushed me toward the door. “Right now. You have to go.”
“What?” I tried to stop, but he was pushing me too hard, forcing my feet to move. “Why?”
“George--my manager. If he sees you up here, I’m dead,” he said.
“But I can’t go out the front door. He’ll see me!”
Jude paused and thought about that for a second. “Yeah, you’re right... Zach’s window is over the roof of the garage. You can go out that way and climb down the ladder that’s over there.”
“Are you sure the ladder’s there? I don't really want to get stuck on the roof of your garage.”
“We were using it this morning, I’m sure it’s there. Come on, you need to go.”
“I—” Jude opened the door and practically shoved me into the hallway. I stumbled forward and slammed straight into somebody else. “Ouch!”
“Sloane?”
I looked up in surprise at the feminine voice. I figured the only people in here would be the other boys. And even if I hadbeen expecting another girl, I never would have expected it to be... Grace.
sixteen
“Sloane! What are you doing here?”she demanded.
“What are you doing here?” I shot back.
“I—” Grace faltered just as a door across the hall opened, and Megan came out with Hudson close behind. “Megan?”
“Oh!” Megan said. She wiped at her lips, where her lipstick was all smudged. “Hey guys.”
“Don’t ignore the question,” I said to Grace. “What are you doing here?”
“I was… just… um… hanging out… with Neil.” She looked at Megan and then at me. “Now, what are you two doing here?”
“And I was hanging out with Hudson,” Megan said slowly.
“Same here,” I said. “I mean—Jude. I was hanging out with Jude.”
“We were all just hanging out and not doing anything else,” Megan said.
“I don’t even know what else we could be doing,” Grace said. I guess we had a good understanding going on.
The bathroom door opened, and Finn walked out with steam billowing out behind him, wrapped only in a small towel. He stopped short when he saw the three of us standing in the middle of the hallway.
“Um…” His hand moved to grip the towel where it was tucked in like he was trying to make sure it didn’t suddenly fall off. “Hi?”
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi,” Megan said.
Grace just stared at him with wide eyes, her face flushing red. I guess it wasn’t every day you saw your favorite member of a boyband fresh out of the shower.
