Read Online Something in Between by Melissa de La Cruz - Free Book Online

then, we hear a banging coming from the first floor.
    â€œUgh,” Kayla says. “Hold on a sec.” She opens the door and peeks out.
    I don’t hear music anymore. “What’s going on?” I ask.
    Kayla comes back in. “Lo turned the lights off. Everyone’s quiet. I think the police are here to shut it down,” she says.
    â€œThe police!” I panic. “What are we going to do?”
    Kayla shuts the door. “I don’t know. I’ll figure out something.”
    Oh God . Thoughts of police turning my family over to immigration officers all because I went to a dumb party start spiraling through my imagination. If any of us are caught doing something illegal, we could be kicked out of the country. How could I be so stupid as to come to this stupid party?
    â€œI can’t get caught by the cops!” I say, panicked.
    I don’t realize how much I’m raising my voice until Kayla puts her hand over my mouth. “If you don’t stop shouting, they’re going to hear us.” She paces the tiny bathroom floor. We can hear loud knocking from down below. “Okay, I have a plan,” she says.
    Kayla opens the bathroom door and pulls me into the hallway. I try to go back to the bathroom, but she drags me along. She’s taller and stronger than I am, and I can’t resist her. “Why are we going out there?”
    The knocks are getting louder. “Open up!”
    Hiding beside the front door, Lo spots us upstairs and points to the kitchen, gesturing for us to go that way. Kayla pulls at me. “ Come on , Jas . I don’t have time to explain. Do you trust me?”
    I’m too scared to run from the police, but I trust Kayla more than anyone. Probably even more than my parents right now. She’s been there for everything. The tears after a B minus. The schoolgirl daydreams about our crushes asking us out to winter formals and the prom. Not that I ever got to go, of course. I wasn’t allowed. My parents are too protective—they wouldn’t even let me go to the junior prom. Kayla went, of course.
    Before I have a chance to respond, she pulls me down the stairs. The band’s instruments are lying on the floor, which is littered with empty red cups and crushed cans. We pass through the living room to the kitchen, where through the window I spot partygoers hopping over the back fence and fleeing through Lo’s side gate.
    â€œLet’s get out of here,” Kayla says.
    â€œBut you can’t drive,” I whisper. “You’ve been drinking.”
    Kayla puts her arm around my shoulders. It’s supposed to be calming, but I feel anything but calm. “I had two light beers,” she says. “I get more buzzed off my grandma’s rum cake on Christmas Eve.”
    â€œI just want to be safe,” I say.
    Kayla can tell I won’t budge. “Fine,” she says, shrugging her shoulders. “If you had your license this wouldn’t be a problem...”
    â€œThis isn’t my fault. I didn’t call the cops.”
    She takes her phone out of her purse and taps on the screen.
    â€œAre you texting your mom?”
    â€œFor real?” Kayla asks. “Of course not.”
    She extends her forearm, showing me Dylan’s number next to a silly smiley face scribbled on her skin. I guess boys are never really as grown-up as they might seem. We start giggling a little, then catch ourselves.
    The knocking finally subsides and Lo returns to the kitchen. “Where’s Julian? It’s not even the cops. Just one of my cranky neighbors. I doubt they’ll actually send police out here for a stupid noise complaint.”
    I exhale. “Oh man, everyone must have assumed...”
    â€œThat the cops were here. Yeah, I know,” Lo says, finishing my sentence. I expect Lo to get mad that her boyfriend ditched her, but she just looks disappointed. “It’s ruined anyway. No one’s