Page 65 of Going the Distance
To me, Jon said, “He’s kind of an angry drunk.”
“He didn’t used to be. Actually, he didn’t used to get any kind of drunk, so much.”
“You drank enough for the two of you, right?” He winked, then moved into the room and tapped Peggy’s waist to make her move. She threw a nasty look at me over her shoulder, nose scrunched up like I’d brought a bad smell in. I was sure she could make my life miserable come school on Monday if she wanted, but right now, I couldn’t bring myself to care if I pissed her off. Jon hooked an arm around Lee and dragged him to his feet.
“Get off, Fletcher, I’m fine. I can walk,” Lee protested, but his legs didn’t do a lot except stumble along as Jon took him outside. Jon practically carried him down the driveway.
“Where’re you parked?”
“There wasn’t any space, so I’m a block down. It’s fine. Thanks. I think he needs to sober up a little. I don’t want him puking all over my car, you know?”
“Sure. Hey, you need anything, give me a shout, yeah?”
Much as I appreciated the help, and that Jon hadn’t been shitty with me like everyone else had, something still niggled at me. Jon was captain of the football team this year, and…
“Did you make him do this?” I called after Jon as he started back toward the house.
He turned, head cocked to the side. “What, get drunk? I mean, we played a few drinking games, but—”
“Lie to us. I know you guys said he couldn’t tell us where he was when you did that initiation thing, so…” I was hoping Lee had a really stupid reason for lying to me and Rachel about tonight—like the fact that it was some football team secret party. Any reason.
Jon laughed. “That’s crazy. It was just a low-key thing tonight. Not even a party. I told the guys not to shout about it on Facebook, because I didn’t want things to get too crazy, but I didn’t tell him to lie to you about it.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Lee sat on the edge of the sidewalk where Jon had dropped him, legs stretched out in front of him, hunched forward with his elbows on his thighs. He groaned, mumbling unintelligibly.
I looked at him, hands on my hips, before looking around for Rachel. I spotted her standing by the car and waved her over. She didn’t move, so I kept waving, in case she hadn’t seen me.
Then my phone buzzed.
I can’t see him right now. You talk to him first.
I sat down on the sidewalk next to Lee. “You did a really shitty thing tonight, you know that?”
“So did you. I was just havingfun.Why’d you have to stop me having fun?”
I laughed, the sound dry and bitter. “Remember how shitty I felt when I saw that picture of Amanda and Noah? That’s exactly what you just did to Rachel.”
“Did not.”
“Uh, yes you did. You and Peggy looked pretty cozy. Throw in the fact that you lied to Rachel about where you were tonight, and you don’t come out of this looking good. And I don’t just mean because you look like you might puke.”
“What, and you come out of this looking good for stalking me and tracking me down? Ten points to Sherlock and Holmes.”
“Watson.”
“God,” he snapped.
“Don’t be like that,” I snapped back. “You lied to both of us. You told me you were with Rachel, told Rachel you were with me, just so you could, what, come to a party where you could flirt with Peggy from the cheerleadingsquad?”
“Oh, like you’re so perfect!”
Lee sat up, putting one hand behind him to lean back on. He looked pasty in the light of the streetlamps, his eyes unfocused and bloodshot, but his mouth was pressed into a tight line.
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re making Rachel into such a third wheel. Or you’re the third wheel. I don’t know, okay, but there’s a third wheel somewhere. And now that’s my problem to deal with? You’re just feeling sorry for yourself for dumping Noah. The guy you lied to me for months about to be with. You lied to me, because you were too busy making out with my brother, and you think that wasn’t a crappy thing to do?”
