Page 30 of Summer of You
He shrugged before bringing his beer bottle to his lips and taking a swallow. “I’m just saying that I’ve never seen you drink like this when we’re not at Art’s dumb parties.”
The room swam a little as I looked around. The dim lighting didn’t help as it bounced off the aluminum siding of the walls. The tequila was numbing, the burn distracting me from the emotional turmoil that consumed my brain.
I tried not to let the way Daniel rolled his eyes bother me as I waved down the bartender. I needed another shot. What I didn’t need was someone judging me. I didn’t have great friends, but out of the three, Daniel wasn’t that bad. He was more reserved. Quiet. Maybe I was scaring him a little with the way I was behaving.
I waved to the empty shot glass in front of me when the bartender made it over. She frowned and leaned against the bar, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked between Daniel and mebefore speaking. “What do you think? Should he have another one?”
Daniel shook his head, and she took my empty shot glass and walked away.
“You’ve betrayed me...”
Daniel shook his head again before he threw a stack of bills on the counter and then grabbed my elbow. Where the hell did he get money like that? Maybe I should get to know more about the personal lives of my friends.
“You’ll thank me later.” When he dragged me outside and the cool breeze hit me, a shiver raced down my spine. Fuck, it was cold. Where the hell was my jacket? Oh, right, I didn’t bring one because I was more concerned with getting shit-faced than I was with keeping myself warm when it inevitably cooled down in the evening.
We were close to the main road, and I wrapped my arms around myself as a car drove by. The headlights made me squint. I must have lost track of time. How long had we been in the bar? How many shots had I drunk?
“Remind me again why I invited you to come with me?”
Daniel huffed as he looped his arm with mine and led me down the sidewalk. “God only knows. Maybe because Art would have been a self-centered ass, and Tilly would have left you to go find someone to piss off Art with?”
Huh... he had a point. Honestly, besides not knowing Daniel well, I did like him more.
“Are you walking me home?” I stumbled over my feet as we carried on with our walk.
Daniel chuckled. “You bet. If I don’t, you’re bound to get into trouble for public intoxication. Plus, I still want to know why you needed to wallow.”
I stopped moving, swallowing in a lungful of the cool evening air. My eyes closed against the burn of tears because, apparently, tequila made me weepy. “Because I’m still in love with him.”
That caused Daniel to pause. “In love with who?”
I almost fell over when I started laughing. Had Daniel not been holding me up, my ass would have been in the grass, or worse, in the road. “Fucking Nathan.”
Daniel’s eyebrows slammed down in confusion. He was still struggling to hold me up as I stumbled along as we continued walking. “Your fuck-boy?”
“Fuck-boy.” I snorted. My weight was too much for my friend, and I dropped to the sidewalk. If I were him, I would have left me to find my own way home. Daniel deserved more credit than he got.
Another car drove by as Daniel sat on the ground next to me. Damn, if we looked like a couple of young idiots sitting there. He looked me over, as if trying to figure me out. The realization that I hadn’t just been keeping things from Nathan hit me then.I hadn’t been letting anyone in. Drew was maybe the only person who knew all of my secrets. And that was just sad.
“Do we have to walk?” I mumbled. My eyes closed as everything around me started to spin a little too much.
Daniel pulled out his phone before he shoved it back into his pocket and manhandled me back to grab mine. I didn’t even care what he was doing. He fidgeted with the screen for a bit, and then we sat in silence for a while. I barely felt the cold anymore. I just wanted a bed and sleep. The drinking had been a huge mistake, but Nathan had pissed me the fuck off earlier.
Keeping up the boundary of summer hookups was going to be impossible.
I must have dozed off with my head on Daniel’s shoulder when the sound of a car door startled me awake. “He’s not going to puke in my car, is he?”
I should have felt relieved, but the part of my brain that wanted to be angry was still clinging on for dear life. I looked over at Daniel. “You hate me, don’t you?”
He chuckled before he helped me to stand. “Maybe not all the way home. I don’t think he’ll puke if you take him to Drew’s place. It’s closer.”
Nathan nodded. “I’m Drew’s nephew, by the way. I’m aware of how close his place is.”
“No shit?” Daniel’s eyebrows raised as he looked between the two of us. I groaned as my so-called friend unhooked my arm fromaround his neck and situated it around the neck of the man who had prompted my binge drinking.
Tequila was the devil. Never again. Nope. Keep that liquid as far as fuck away from me.
My mouth tasted like garbage. No, forget garbage. It was compost—stuff that had been decaying for days, months even. My head throbbed as the light filtered in through the window that was much too large to be the one in my bedroom, but I knew these pillows, this comforter. Little blips of Daniel handing me off to Nathan came back to me. Same with the way that I’d emptied my stomach into the bushes outside the second we’d gotten back to Drew’s house.
