Page 56 of Please Don't Leave Me

B reaches over to take it from him. "Yes please!" She takes a hit and offers it to me.

"No, I'm good for now; I'll probably smoke something later. I don't trust myself to get high this early in the night."

The guy takes it back from B and takes another hit. "Fair enough. At least you have keen self-awareness."

I laugh because I'm not sure I would say that, but he's not totally wrong.

The group around the fire starts playing a drinking game, so I crack myself a seltzer. The game is more luck than skill, and the universe is not on my side tonight. I fly through my four-pack of seltzers quickly, and I'm not in the mood for beer, so I sit out a round.

B tells me to go inside and grab a drink. When I give her a skeptical look, she reassures me that the drinks in there are for everyone and that it wouldn't be weird. I'm not sure why she doesn't just offer to go in and grab one for me since they’re her friends, but she doesn't. She's pretty into this game and pretty into the guy sitting next to her.

Although I'm uncomfortable walking into a stranger’s house and helping myself to their alcohol, I do need to pee. I don't bother to ask her to come with me because she'd just tell me to be a big girl.

I walk up to the back door and let myself in. Most of the people have migrated outside to the bonfire, so the house is pretty quiet. I look around and locate the kitchen off to the left. I walk in and see a bunch of coolers on the floor, and I sheepishly start opening them.

Rummaging through other people’s things feels wrong, but B swore it wasn’t an issue and told me to grab her one, too. I brought the beer in here with me to put in the coolers, which makes me feel a little better.

I eventually locate a cooler with more seltzers in it and dig through the ice for a flavor I like. My hand is freezing by the time I pull out a pineapple for B and a lime for myself. I shake off the ice stuck to them and find a dish towel to dry them off. Then, I run my hand under warm water to warm it up.

With the sink running, I don’t even hear someone walk into the kitchen behind me.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“Jesus!” I jump about a foot in the air, so startled by the sudden voice behind me. “Oh, you scared me so bad.” My back is now to the counter, and my hand is keeping my heart from pounding out of my chest. I let out a little laughbecause now I’m embarrassed by my reaction when I see that it’s a really cute guy behind me.

He laughs too. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Just came in here to grab a lighter.” He fishes through one of the drawers and grabs one out without taking his eyes off me.

“It’s all good. Do you, by chance, know where the bathroom is?”

He smiles; I’m not really sure why, though. He leans through the entrance to the kitchen and points to a hallway to the right. “It’s down that hall, the door straight ahead of you.”

“Thanks.” I grab our drinks off the counter and squeeze by him to head to the bathroom. It’s a pretty small bathroom with no counter to set the drinks on, so I just hold them while I pee, and now my hands are freezing again.

I finish up and walk out, heading for the back door. I spot that same guy sitting in the living room, packing a bong. He looks up and catches me staring at him.

“You want some?”

I honestly don’t want to go back outside just yet, so I figure, why not?

“Sure.”

I walk into the living room and sit on the couch next to him. “My name is Lou, by the way; I’m B’s sister.” I guess I just assume that everyone knows B without even thinking if he knows her or not.

He smiles. “Yeah? You’re the big sister?”

I scrunch my eyebrows together, confused. So he does know B. Does she talk about me to her friends? “I hope the fact that you know who I am isn’t a bad thing…”

“Nah. B only says good things about you. She says you used to have fun when you were in college, but now you are a lot more tame. A “mature” adult, as some would say.”

I laugh at the idea of B telling people I’m mature. But, I guess up until this summer when Jay dumped me, I had gotten pretty boring and didn’t do anything that wasn’t good for my future.

“Did she also tell you that I’ve recently learned to let loose again?”

“She may have mentioned that.”

I smile at him, and he hands me the bong. I take a hit and inhale the cool, smooth smoke, letting it out after a couple seconds. I almost instantly feel it since it’s been so long since I’ve smoked.

I turn to hand it to him and realize something. “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

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