Like, the wasted kind of drunk. There isn’t going to be an ice cream date after this event. No, I’m currently hauling them both into the back of my G-Wagon like they’re bales of hay while Lowesy climbs into the front seat with a look of regret.
“How did this get so out of hand?” he murmurs.
Probably around the fourth tequila shot, but I’m not a judge. I glance in the rearview mirror, to where Arden is slumping toward Penny, laughing so hard that tears are running down her cheeks. It takes me a second to realize Penny isn’t slurring right now, she’s just trying to imitate Boston’s deep voice.
It’s not very good, but I applaud the effort.
“If she asks to connect to your speakers, say no,” Declan mutters, a look of fear on his face.
I nod, but just as quickly, hands are slapped on the back of his headrest, and Penny is hauling herself between our seats.
“Don’t pit him against me!” she seethes, reaching to grabhis face. She pinches his cheeks between her fingers. “My playlist is beautiful and poetic and life changing!”
He cocks a brow and murmurs through her tight grip on his face. “One Direction is life-changing?”
Arden squeals a laugh, burying her face in her hands.
“I’m going to give you one chance to rephrase that,” Penny tells him sternly.
He stares at her, love pouring out of his eyes and stinking up my car. “Lucky, I’m not telling him not to play yourOnes N’ Rosesplaylist because I don’t like it. I’m telling him not to play it because you go a little crazy when you listen to it, and this is averyconfined space. Someone is going to get hurt.”
Penny grins, slumping onto the center console on her elbow. She sloppily smashes her mouth to his. “I’ll be careful. Thank you, baby.”
I’m starting the vehicle when the blonde whirls on me. The look she gives me holds just as big of a warning as the one she gave Lowesy. “Give me your phone, Forker. Tout de suite!”
I glance at Lowesy. “Did she just accuse me of farting?”
Lowesy’s lip twitches upward. He shakes his head. “No, she’s asking you to be quick. It’s one of the five phrases she remembers from high school French.”
“I mean, everyone uses that phrase,” Penny says with a roll of her eyes. “I can ask you if I can go to the bathroom, if you’d like. Then you’d see my high school French in all its glory.”
When she flops back into her seat, Declan shoots me a sideways look. That fear is heightened now, like we’re trapped in this G-Wagon with a fucking bear. “Whatever you do, press ‘skip’ if Def Leppard comes on or she’ll be leaving this vehicle in a neck brace.”
I drop Dec and Penny off at their house and watch him practically carry her up their driveway while she belts out aOne Direction song at the top of her lungs. Once he gets her inside, I help Arden into the front. She buckles herself in and slumps against the door, red hair all wild and messy from headbanging in the back with her new partner in crime.
I shake my head, but can’t fight my smile. I don’t think this girl has let loose in a while. As much as she’ll hate herself for it in the morning, I’m glad she let her hair down tonight.
“You okay, Red?”
“Chicken nuggets,” she mumbles.
I glance at her. “What?”
“Can we get chicken nuggets?” she asks, peeling herself off the window. She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, smearing her red lips. “The only meal I had was the lemons I bit into after that crazy woman handed me my tequila shots.”
I laugh. It’s still early. We were out of there by ten. Sweets and Arden barely left the bar that whole time unless Morgan and Emma slid up next to them. That’s when they’d go to the bathroom. It was like watching a choreographed dance routine.
“We can get chicken nuggets.”
Her eyes widen, bloodshot as hell. “Really?”
I nod, a grin pulling on my mouth that I can’t smother. “Really.”
She cheers again. Such a happy sound. A sound that jolts me back to life a bit, like a fucking defibrillator pressed right against my chest. When she reaches across the console and wraps her hands around my arm, that jolt turns into a full-on electric shock.
“You might be the best faux boyfriend I have ever had.” She sighs.
I hate the way my pulse is picking up at the tone of her voice.
