“Oh no,” Kennedy shouts.
“What is it? Have I had something in my teeth this whole time?” Scarlett asks, frantically searching for her mirror in her purse .
“No. Your teeth are perfect, babe. I just realised that Wren is an emotional drunk,” Kennedy says, pouting at me.
“I’m not emotional and I’m not a drink,” I slur, waving her off.
“Drunk, babe. You mean you’re notdrunk,” Scarlett says, patting me on the back. Thank god she knows how to speak. “And you are. Watch.”
She pulls her phone out of her back pocket and clicks on her home screen and it’s a picture of the two of us at our kindergarten graduation. We look so tiny and small and so cute. We’ve got the biggest grins on our toothless faces with our graduation caps and gowns on. Then she clicks the screen and the worst thing happens. It changes to a picture of all of us, Kennedy now included, at our high school graduation, smiling as we hold our diplomas.
“See, that’s just cruel,” I say, the sob ripping through me unexpectedly. “I miss you guys.”
“We’re right here, Wrenny. And we always will be if you let us,” Kennedy says, looking at me with her gorgeous brown doe eyes. Then the waterworks are really flowing. God, I can’t get myself to stop. “More drinks!”
Then we drink more as the last few weeks I’ve had fade into a blur. Then my mind goes into a no-go zone. The Miles Zone. Suddenly all I can think about are his green eyes and his kind words and the fact that I’ve pushed him away since the interview and that I’ve tried to avoid thinking about him.
I do the stupid thing and pull out my phone which opens up to a picture of the two of us. It’s a selfie he took while he was confiscating my phone as I studied. He’s got the cheesiest grin on his face and is holding the camera high so you can see me in the background, my head buried deep in books. By the time he gave me my phone back, this was the picture he changed the home screen to and I haven’t had the energy to change it back.
I do an even stupider thing and I call him.
He picks up on the third ring.
“Milesy, baby. I miss you,” I say, the words unable to stop coming out of my mouth. The girls look at me with a sceptical look and I turn away from them, walking towards the bar to sit down. “What are you doing? Who are you with? You’re not cheating on me, are you?”
Apparently I’m a jealous drunk too. I hear him laugh low over the phone. “I’m on a Costco run with Evan. What areyoudoing?”
“Drinking at a bar with Kenny and Scarlett,” I say through a yawn. I whisper as if it’s a secret, “I think I’m drunk.”
“Really? I couldn’t tell,” he replies. “Are you okay, though? Where are you?”
“Shhhh.Stop shouting at me or I’m going to kiss you.”
He laughs but I don’t see what’s funny. “You’re going to kiss me? Do you mean kill, Wren?”
Oh. “Stupid autocorrect.”
“You can't autocorrect with your voice, baby.”
“Stop calling me baby or Iwillkiss you,” I murmur but I don’t think he hears me. All I hear is a sharp inhale so I continue. “Can you come and get us, please. I need you.”
“Can you turn on your location for me?” he asks gently and I fumble to change the screen so I can send him my location. "I’m on my way.”
Less than twenty minutes later, we’re still all very drunk, a little less sad than before and the boys have turned up. Maybe I should have given Scarlett a trigger warning about Evan showing up because she almost throws up when she sees him. Which I can’t tell is because of the alcohol or because of the disgust she has for him. Evan is casually in pants, a crisp white shirt and a black tie hanging loose on his neck while Miles is wearing grey sweatpants and a white shirt.
Scarlett comes beside me as we stand in a line, staring at the boys as if they’ve interrupted a kidnapping. “Why is he here? You promised no blondes,” she tries to whisper but she’s basically shouting in my ear.
“I promised no such thing. Plus, he was already with Miles in his fancy car,” I say back, remembering the black Escalade that Evan’s driver has.Yes, he has a driver. What is this life?
“I can't help it if I'm blonde,” Evan retorts, running a hand through his hair.
“You can dye your hair,” Kennedy suggests.
“Done.”
“No! Don't do that,” Scarlett says, stumbling towards him as if he’s about to dye his hair this minute. Evan laughs, holding her as she almost falls into him.
“Youjustsaid how much you hate my blondeness.”
