Page 81 of Collateral Damage
“What did the bouncer say?” Sybil asks.
I shake my head and keep my mouth shut. Even though Chandler won’t remember this in the morning, I don’t want him to know.
“Where were you?” I turn on my brother instead, fighting the rage churning in my chest. “We leave you alone with Chandler for five minutes, and suddenly he’s downing shots?”
Ethan’s face is pale, and I already feel bad for putting this on him.
“I had to pee,” Ethan says in a strained whisper, sounding absolutely gutted. “me,I should’ve taken him with me, but we didn’t want to lose our table. I’m an idiot.” He turns to Chandler. “I’m so sorry.”
Chandler can’t even answer; he’sthatdrunk.
Sybil’s tears have stopped, but the tracks of mascara across her face make me want to punch someone all over again.
“I want to know what that guy said,” she tries again. She’s really not the type to let this go.
I sigh. “Let’s get Chandler to the car first.”
Chandler’s head is lolling. Five minutes and he’ll be asleep, but if he has alcohol poisoning, he needs to get to a hospital. The thing is, we don’t know how much he had to drink. Three beers and who knows how many shots…
Shots someone else supplied and could have been tampered with.
“We should take him to the hospital,” I say.
Sybil stiffens. “I’ll handle it. Let’s get him in the backseat.”
A few minutes later, he’s buckled in Sybil’s car. Ethan slides into the backseat with him, trying to keep him awake.
Sybil and I step away from the vehicle so I can quickly relay what happened. Maybe I’m an idiot for expecting her to thank me for standing up for her brother, but she doesn’t look too happy.
She pinches the bridge of her nose and growls. “I think getting into a fight only made it worse. I hope Chandler doesn’t remember this tomorrow.”
“Are you serious? You think I overreacted?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know, but getting in a fight wasn’t a good for anyone.”
“And I’m supposed to let some guy call him a slur and do nothing?”
Bottom lip trembling, she frowns. “I took him out to have fun, and he didn’t.That’swhat I know. Now I have to call my parents to meet us at the hospital. Sorry, but this never would’ve happened if you two hadn’t shown up.”
“You think this is our fault?” I glare, utterly shocked she’s blaming us. Sure, Ethan fucked up by going to the bathroom, but we wereallthere to watch Chandler.
“It certainly never would’ve happened if you and I didn’t leave the table to go off and argue about stupid shit.” She runs a hand through her hair. “I don’t have time for this. I’ve got to go.”
“Fine, but don’t blame any of this on me, Ethan, or yourself.”
She circles her index finger between us. “I absolutely blame this. Us. You and me. Me and Ethan. You and Ethan. We’re all toxic together.”
That word feels worse than any punch those guys landed on me. “Toxic?”
“Yes.” She sounds so worn out. Defeated. Heartbroken. “We can’t be friends anymore, Cooper. We can’t be anything. There’s too much bad blood between our families, and quite frankly, you’re not a good influence on me.”
I step away as if she slapped me. “You really mean this, don’t you?”
“I’m sorry, Cooper. Tonight can’t happen again. We can’t pretend to be friends when we’re not friends anymore. We’re not anything.”
I stare, letting her words sink in deep. Maybe I can accept them.
Her eyes water. “Goodbye, Cooper. Take care of yourself.”
