Page 2 of That Summer
“Yep. Party will be over in less than thirty at this rate.”
“Where are you going?” Miranda whined, running up behind me.
“To get a twelve pack or something.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?” Ronnie stopped and turned to me.
I cracked a smile. “I have my brother’s ID.”
“He gave it to you?” he asked.
“No. I stole it.” I smirked.
Brandon thought he’d lost it while he was visiting for Christmas last year. The truth was, I took it out of his wallet and never gave it back. I needed an ID to get beer every weekend to survive high school. It helped that we looked alike. We both had light brown hair styled in crew cuts. His was a little longer than mine but not by much. Both of us had brown eyes and smiles that chicks referred to as the “Montgomery smile” because it didthingsto their body. We didn’t complain, and used the smirk often.
“Get enough for all of us then, Blake,” Ronnie ordered.
“I’ll get enough for the three of us,” I countered. “Not my party. Not spending my money on everyone else.”
Fuck. That.
After Miranda and I got into my pick-up truck, I headed toward the nearest liquor store. It wasn’t far, which was another reason I was pissed the house wasn’t stocked. How did the jackass who threw the party think one keg would be enough for an entire baseball team and most of the senior and junior classes?
Idiots. Fucking idiots.
“What do you want to drink, baby?” I asked Miranda as I threw the truck into park.
“Wine cooler.”
Yuck.That shit was nasty. Give me a Coors Light, and I was a happy man.
“What flavor?”
“Strawberry and piña colada.”
After I bought two twelve packs of beer and three wine coolers, I hopped back into the truck and revved the engine. “My place?” I asked as I shifted the truck into reverse.
“We’re not going back to the party?” Miranda asked.
“Private party at my place?” I clarified.
She should have come over to my house to begin with—it had a guest house that I used for fucking. Before Miranda and I got serious, the girls I brought to my house always dug the privacy and would pretend we were on vacation because it was decorated in a nautical theme. Whatever I needed to do to get laid.
Welcome to Lake Iwannalayya.
Miranda leaned over the center console and snaked her hand up my thigh. “Whatever you want to do, I’m down.”
I cracked a Montgomery smile at her. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
Instead of turning toward the party, I headed in the direction of my house—Ronnie would forget that I was supposed to bring him beer. Not three minutes later, the flickering of red and blue lights shined in my rearview mirror.
Happy fucking birthday to me.
2
My brother’sshadow was once again casting a dark haze around me. Well, more like he saved my ass. Long story short, I got pulled over for a DUI and underage drinking. Once the judge realized that my brother was the hotshot quarterback all of Houston wanted to be, he ordered that I do five hundred hours of community service, pay one-thousand bucks, and suspended my license for thirty days. It could have been worse—like me being in jail.
My community service was due to start in a few weeks, and I had no clue what I was going to be doing. After all the shit went down, my parents had all but locked my ass in my room until graduation. Didn’t fucking matter that I was an adult and eighteen now. They said something about me living under their roof and abiding by their rules. All I heard was blah, blah, blah. Being grounded did have its perks. I watched all the porn I wanted, jerked off multiple times a day, and broke up with Miranda.
