Page 124 of Chaos

Except one never comes.

Luna snickers as she shakes her head, long locks bouncing as she feigns disappointment. “Honestly, you lasted longer than I thought you would.”

Yeah. I can’t say that I don’t share that sentiment. “Tell my brother I said bye?”

Luna sighs dramatically like it’s some massive inconvenience, but she nods. “Take his truck, yeah? He’ll kill me if you walk home in the dark and get eaten by a coyote or something.”

“I think he’d high five you, actually.”

Luna tuts, inching closer until she can slide her palm over my cheek and pat gently. “I know you don’t believe that.”

No. I don’t. Not anymore, at least.

Patting me once more, she lets her hand drop. “Go on.” She jerks her head towards the house looming nearby, a whole cohort of vehicles parked just behind it. “Get out of here.”

I start to do just that only to pause a handful of steps away, half-turning to the woman fiddling with the short hem of a strapless mini dress that’s just as breathtaking, just asLuna, as her first gown. “It was a really beautiful wedding, Luna.”

“Course it was.” My sister-in-law grins. “It was mine, wasn’t it?”

With a low laugh, I depart.

But once again, I don’t make it very far.

I turn in the general direction of the makeshift parking lot—that’s as far as I get before my name rings across the night, loud and a little funny-sounding.Slurred, I realize, as a big body stumbles in my direction, the twinkling lights strung overhead illuminating a handsome face smiling dopily.

Even though my spine locks and my fingers start to twitch nervously at my sides, I find myself smiling back. “Looks like someone had fun.”

I almost think Finn isn’t going to stop—that he’s just going to barrel right through me. But at the very last moment, he pulls up short, looking every bit his six-foot, something-inch frame and smelling like a goddamn brewery.

“Yasmin,” he slurs his friend’s name, “is averybad influence.”

“Oh, I know.” I reckon if my sobriety can survive a single night spent refusing her, it can survive anything. “She got you good, huh?”

Finn bobs his head solemnly before cracking another grin. “Whatcha doin’?”

I gesture in the general direction of the A-frame. “Heading home.”

“Oh.” He… Jesus, hepouts. That plump bottom lip juts out, as adorable as it is thoroughly distracting, and he fuckingwhines, “Really?”

“Uh-huh.” I rip my gaze away from his mouth, clearing my throat as I once again try for a swift exit. “See ya later.”

Later, as in the next morning, I meant.

Notlateras in one single second later, when Finn clumsily lopes after me, catching up swifter than he should be capable of. It’s my turn to ask, “What’re you doing?”

And it’s his turn to say, “Heading home.”

I open my mouth to protest, and then I just… don’t.

I let Finn lead me to his truck, and I tell myself it’s because I don’t want to go home to an empty house. I let graceless fingers open the driver’s side door for me, and it’s that action that starts me cataloguing the differences between my drunk self, and a drunk Finn. The difference between…

Well, the difference between someone who doesn’t know how to stop, and someone who does.

Wasted out of his mind, he doesn’t even think about driving. There’s no discussion before he gestures for me to get behind the wheel. As he settles on the passenger seat, he clicks his seatbelt into place, and he makes sure I do the same. I start the car and I drive and he doesn’t do anything, he’s not angry or abrasive or gropy, and I don’t think I’ve ever been around a really drunk person who wasn’t at least one of those three. I’ve had all kinds of inebriated experiences, been around all kinds of drunks,beenall kinds of drunk, but not a single iteration has ever been… quiet. Gentle.

Fuckingsweet.

Slouched against the soft leather, Finn watches me. Fingers tapping against his thighs, he hums to a tune I can’t hear. And he says my name every so often, murmurs it quietly, but every time I look over expectantly, he just smiles.

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