Page 15 of September Lessons
“You seeing anyone, Christina?”
It took the mayor’s daughter longer than it usually might for her to catch Carrie’s speed. Once she did, though, her smile fell lopsided on her face and she scoffed in mild disbelief. “I got some options, you know?” She turned her head away. “Male options.”
Ouch. Could’ve gone worse, though. After clearing her throat and stepping away, Carrie said, “I see. I’m sorry. Can you blame a girl for trying, though?”
“I mean, if I were into girls, you’d probably be my type.” Christina hopped off the counter. “But I’m not. I prefer boys. Sorry.”
“Hey, as long as we’re cool.”
“Sure. We’re cool.”
Christina took a small stumble toward the kitchen door. “Need some help?” Carrie asked.
“Maybe… maybe a little. Could use an escort to the couch. Keep Aiden’s paws off me, would you?”
“No problem. I’ll make sureallpaws are off you.”
Carrie took her by the arm and led her through the cheering drunks and mellow potheads. The porn had shut off in favor of a multiplayer video game that had three boys and one girl screaming obscenities at each other while others hung out on their phones or made out in the corner. Carrie found an empty spot on the couch and helped Christina sit down. She then asked if she should go grab some water for the inebriated girl sighing into the back of the couch.
“Whoa.” Carrie almost had a minor heart attack when she saw Dillon sitting on the other end, a beer in his hand. “Since when do you party? I was wondering where you went off to tonight! What did you tell Mom and Dad, huh? That you were going to bell choir at the Baptist church?”
Carrie rounded on her cousin, who waswaytoo young to be drinking. Let alone driving later. Granted, he was only two years younger than Carrie, who was also underage drinking, but that was beside the point! “The hell are you doing? Dotheyknow that this is where you are?”
“They think I’m at Brent’s for the night. I mean, he and I are going back to his place tonight when this place gets lame, but you’re not gonna tell on us, right?”
“I won’t tell if you don’t.”
“Good! Because I don’t think you want them knowing about your drinks and tokes with a bunch of minors, right? Especially after what happened in Alabama…”
“Look.” Carrie got down in his pimply face, which smelled about as good as the bottom of the trash bag in the kitchen. “This is the mayor’s daughter, you hear me?” She gestured to Christina, who had closed her eyes for – hopefully – a moment. “Don’t mess with her, and make sure she doesn’t get messed with. If I hear something’s happened to her, I’mtotallytelling.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Dillon held up his hands as if he had something to protect himself from. “I ain’t gonna be touching nobody, let alone some chick! Mayor’s daughter? Pfft. Like I’d mess with Christina Rath.”
“Good. See that you don’t.”
“Not her keeper, though!”
“You are as long as you’re sitting on this couch with her.”
“Where are you going?”
Carrie marched toward the other side of the room. “I’ve gotta find a bathroom!”
It was true. She may not have drunk as much as some of her classmates, but it was going right through her, and it was better to pee it out now before she had to drive home sometime later. At this rate, that would be sooner rather than later.
Yet as Carrie prepared to go home half an hour later, she heard the tell-tale sounds of sirens in the distance.
“Shit! It’s the cops!” Aiden stumbled into the center of the living room, where he motioned for someone to cut the music and someone else to shut off the TV. “Who the hell called them, huh? Our closest neighbors are a quarter mile away!”
Apparently, the party had been loud enough for at least one neighbor to make a call and complain to the only officer on duty. Before Carrie could haul ass to the backdoor and hide out in her car, the deputy pounded on the door, demanding that Aiden open the damn door already.
With a face as pale as the sheets someone wore as a toga, Aiden said a friendly hello to the stone-cold woman with her hands on her hips.
“Aiden Kitzberg, we’ve talked about this before.” Oh, snap.Not only is he in trouble, but he’s been in trouble before, huh?This was almost too good. The kind of entertainment Carrie definitely signed up for with her high school drama. “You throw parties with booze and drugs, you’re gonna have the nice old lady next door calling about it because she saw her granddaughter pulling in.” She peered over Aiden’s shoulder. “Amanda! That you?”
Amanda scurried past Carrie, slamming face-first into a closet door.
Aiden had no choice but to step aside as the burly deputy with not much to prove sauntered into the den of teenage revelry. The shining moment for her must have been the high-out-of-his-mind sophomore wandering around in nothing but his T-shirt and tighty-whities.
