Page 62 of A Totally Platonic Thing
For a second I considered trying to call some of the usual suspects, Mason maybe, someone who might be downtown and able to deal with it.
I shot that idea down instantly, though. They all drank super heavily, and they’d be too wasted to help even if I could reach them. And if Chris had reached a point of clinging to Aidan, and he’d been upset about me leaving him…well, he probably wouldn’t go with anyone but me, anyway.
Back to square one. God fucking dammit.
I turned to find Amanda eyeing me warily. “Lucas? What’s wrong?”
I let out a long, shaky breath, counting to five so I didn’t start shouting and kicking things around on the floor.
“I have to go pick up Chris,” I said. My voice came out without any inflection. If I showed any emotion at all, I’d lose it completely. “He’s drunk and freaking out. I have to get him home.”
Amanda looked down at the mess of panels and wires and tools in our shared work area.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She stopped, shook her head, and sighed. “If you do that, you won’t finish on time. I mean, you can come back after, maybe. And I’ll stay and keep working. But there won’t be much to show that VP guy tomorrow. Later today,” she corrected herself after a glance at the clock on the wall.
“I know.” There didn’t seem to be much else to say, so I put my phone in my pocket and pulled out my keys. And then I turned back to her, because there was one other thing to say. Chris’s fuck-up might be having a cascading effect, from him to Aidan and his coworkers to me, but it didn’t need to go any further. “Thank you. And—thank you. I can never thank you enough. But don’t stay. Go home. You have to be ready to show your own work in the morning, too. Get some sleep. I’ll come back and work on my own if I can.”
“No,” she said firmly. And there went that eyebrow again. I knew better than to argue with the eyebrow. “I’m going to finish this part, okay? And then, yes, I’ll leave. And I’ll have Jim come over and walk me home,” she added before I could start arguing with the eyebrow after all. “He’s still up playing video games, guaranteed. Get a little sleep and a shower while you’re home, and then meet me back here at eight. We’ll finish up what we can and make it look pretty. My project’s fine for what they’ll expect at this stage, and you know that asshole Park’s going to talk me up so he can imagine I’ll fuck him in his pathetic dreams, or whatever.”
“But you—”
“Actually have no interest at all in aerospace,” she cut me off without hesitation. “I’m going to revolutionize the power grid, remember? Screw it. Boys always think aerospace is so cool just because it has ‘space’ in it.”
“Space is cool,” I shot back automatically, and I even managed half a smile. “Okay. Thank you. I mean, seriously thank you. Don’t come back before eight.”
She eyed me skeptically. “Don’t you come back before eight, either.”
“No promises.”
I waved at her in a salute-like gesture, she one-finger saluted me back, and I headed out.
The night air, all foggy and cool, stung my burning cheeks. And my burning eyes. Fuck, I felt like shit on a road, just like Amanda had said.
My anger faded a little as I burned it off walking to my car. What was the point? I still simmered underneath, but a layer of cold, hard…something had started forming on top. I couldn’t do this. Not for the rest of the quarter until graduation, not after graduation, not for the rest of my life. I’d told Chris. I’dtoldhim. The one and only time I’d tried to set a boundary, and I’d truly needed him not to cross it, he’d waltzed right over me.
I shot Aidan a quick text as I strode through the parking lot to let him know I was on my way, and then I was in the car and off to Aeon.
Parking in the lot behind the club, stone-cold sober while little groups of late-night drinkers stumbled and laughed and lit cigarettes around me, felt sickeningly familiar.
Getting out of the car and going to the back door of Aeon made me grit my teeth.
And the sight of an impatient-looking Aidan holding Chris up right outside it had me in a state I couldn’t even describe, somewhere between fury, and wanting to turn around and walk away and never look back, and desperate longing.
Fuck this.
“Hey,” Aidan said as he spotted me, that one word full of relief. “Thank fucking God. I’m so sorry, dude, but I really didn’t know what else to do. I think the birthday party he was with moved on to another club and didn’t notice he wasn’t with them in the chaos. He’d never have made it home in a cab, even if anyone would’ve taken him in this state. And someone else left early. I have to be here for close or Jason’s going to have my balls.”
Chris rolled his head back, letting it lean on Aidan’s shoulder. “Lucash,” he slurred. “You’re here.”
And then he burst into tears and tried to flail away from Aidan.
“It’s okay,” I said—more to Aidan than to Chris. Aidan shrugged and let go, and Chris toppled the last couple of feet and slammed into my chest, heavy and uncoordinated and reeking of vodka and still shaking with weak, drunken sobs.
I wanted to hold him tight and tell him I’d never leave him, and that everything would be okay.
And I couldn’t.
“I got this,” I told Aidan. “Go back to work, and thanks. Seriously. You went above and beyond waiting with him.”
