‘Is she okay?’
‘She’s all right, about to crash, but still fine.’
I let out a sigh of relief, glad to hear nothing bad had happened. ‘That’s good, so should I meet you on the front porch instead?’ I suggested.
‘Yeah, see you in a bit,’ Nina said before she hung up.
‘Is everything okay?’ Colton asked me, a worried look on his face.
‘Yeah. I think we’re done for tonight, we’re just about to head back.’
‘How are you getting home?’
‘Probably an Uber,’ I answered.
‘I’ll drive you home.’
Normally I would have politely rejected his offer and insisted that we could get ourselves home just fine. But this time, I just said, ‘Thank you,’ gave him a smile of appreciation, and left it at that.
Colton must have been expecting my usual antics, and when the two words finally registered to him, his eyes widened in amusement. ‘No arguments today?’
‘No arguments today,’ I confirmed.
With that, we both stood up and made our way to the front porch, taking an alternate route along the side of the house, rather than facing the party crowd.
‘There they are,’ I pointed out once I saw them.
Claudia stood in the middle of Nina and Lily, her arms wrapped around each one of them. I could tell they had been struggling to hold her up, considering Claudia was a foot taller than both of them.
‘Did you order an Uber yet?’ I asked once I approached them.
‘Not yet,’ Nina said. ‘Can you do it?’
‘You don’t have to,’ Colton chimed in. ‘I’ll drive you home.’
Both Nina and Lily immediately turned their head to look at Colton, finally noticing I had company.
Deciding to quickly introduce them, I gestured to Colton. ‘Colton. This is Lily and Claudia, Nina and I used to live across the hall from them during my freshmen year.’ Turning to Lily, I said, ‘This is Colton. We share a class this semester.’
‘Nice meeting you,’ Colton said. But it seemed like Lily was still a bit too surprised to speak.
Trying his best to ignore Lily and Nina’s stares, Colton turned to me instead. ‘I had to park my car a couple houses away from here, you guys just wait while I go get it,’ he instructed before heading off.
‘Okay.’ I nodded, watching him as he went to fetch his car.
I kept staring after him, trying my best to prolong the moment as much as I could, before I had to face the shocked looks on my friends’ faces.
‘Did I drink way too much tonight or did Colton Reed just offer to drive us home?’ Lily asked.
‘Both?’ I shrugged.
Lily just arched a brow at me, while Nina had an amused look on her face.
‘He’s just being a good friend,’ I tried explaining.
‘Mmhmm,’ Nina hummed, clearly not believing me.
‘I’m serious.’