Page 37 of Puck You
Grace looked at me as if to saychallenge accepted.Before I could intervene, she was shouting at a group of partygoerspassing on the sidewalk behind me.
“Do any of you want to sleep with me?”
Their chatter died down, and one of the guys, in a pirate costume, squinted in Grace’s direction.He took a step into the yard, and I had to stop myself from blocking his path like an overprotective boyfriend.
“Hey, you’re Bob Ross,” he said with a laugh.
“I am.Would you fuck me?Even with the wig and the beard?”
The guy looked her up and down from head to toe and nodded his head.“Definitely.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” I said, placing myself between the stranger and Grace.
She was still on the ground where she’d fallen, legs extended and arms on either side of her body.I didn’t miss the triumphant gleam in her eyes.Shaking my head in half amusement, half disappointment, I reached down and picked up her phone just as the screen lit up.Grace made a noise of disapproval as I read the name flashing across the front and answered the call.
“Hello, Caroline,” I answered.
“Grace, is that you?”
“Do I sound like Grace?”
A sigh of relief met my ears.“Thank God you found her, Sebastian.We’ve been looking for over thirty minutes.”
“Yes, thank God I found her and not some perv with bad intentions.Why the hell is she out here alone?”
“We were heading to the bar and then suddenly she was gone.No one saw her leave.”
“She’s on her ass in someone’s yard,” I said as I searched for the nearest street sigh.“We’re on the corner of Brentwood andLloyd.”
“I’ll be there in, like, five minutes.Don’t leave her.”
I hung up the phone and turned back to Grace.She was fully lying down now, her back pressed into a pile of fallen leaves as her eyes searched the sky.Without overthinking the absurdity of the situation, I lay down beside her and looked up.Trimont didn’t have much light pollution, so there were hundreds of stars visible overhead.
“Why’d you run off?”I asked.
She turned to look at me, and I slowly mirrored her movement.If October was cursed, then November had to be an alternate reality.There was no other explanation for how I’d found myself here, on the ground, mere inches away from Grace.It would have been so easy to lean over and kiss her.We were already more than halfway there, our eyes level, lips closer to touching than ever before.
“I didn’t run off,” she said.“I stopped walking.”
Maybe it was because she was drunk and probably wouldn’t remember tonight, or maybe it was because I was tired of fighting, but I let go of my feelings for a moment.At least for tonight, Grace and I could be more than sparring partners.I could be concerned, not angry.
“You’re smart enough to know that you shouldn’t wander off by yourself in the dark.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“You can’t even walk.”
“I can walk!”
Perhaps we were destined to bicker—no matter how we felt about each other or what state of mind we were in.
“Then stand up and show me.”
“I like it down here, though.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I’m ridiculous?You’re the one who’s out on Halloween without a costume.”
