‘Where’s Ollie?’ he says, looking over my shoulder.
‘We’re not attached at the hip.’ I’m feeling defensive.
‘But wouldn’t you like to be?’
‘Does it really matter?’ I say, getting fed up now.
He catches my eye. ‘You’re right. It’s your birthday after all.’ He taps his can against my plastic cup. ‘Happy birthday.’
‘This toast feels less fancy than earlier.’
‘But more real,’ he says, taking a sip of his beer.
I laugh, but the moment is short-lived as the loud yells of ‘chug, chug, chug,’ start from the garden. Ty and I look at each other, and head for the garden door. I battle my way through the small crowd to see Ollie and Tori’s boyfriend necking bottles of wine.
Thirty-Eight
Swing sets and slides
I’ve always had you by my side
Sister, I’ve loved you since
The beginning of time
‘Sister’ fromDreamers
What are they doing?’ I say to Faye, horrified. She and Kira are standing at the front of the crowd, Faye watching in pure horror, Kira with some level of amusement.
‘They’ve got into some kind of drinking contest,’ says Faye.
‘Who can drink a bottle of wine the fastest,’ says Kira. ‘My money is on Ollie because the other guy looks kind of green already.’
‘We have to stop this,’ I say. ‘They’re going to poison themselves. What is Ollie thinking?’
‘I am surprised he had it in him,’ says Kira. ‘But Ollie is super competitive, and I think him and Michael were egging each other on . . . and well, now we’re here.’
‘I’m going up,’ I say. But as I stride up to them, Ollie staggers away, holding up an empty bottle of wine. The crowd cheers.
‘Come on,’ I hiss, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him towards the door. We walk past Ty and I avoid his look. Thisis not what I planned, not what I wanted to happen.
‘Selena, I did it,’ he says, swaying, as we walk into the kitchen. ‘Let’s go upstairs,’ says Ollie, grabbing me by the hands.
‘I’m trying to keep the party strictly downstairs for everybody,’ I say.
‘Yeah, but I’m notanybody,’ he says, rocking from one foot to the other on a step. For a moment he looks so devilish, he reminds me of the Ollie I know.
‘Okay, let’s go,’ I say, grabbing his hand as he leads me upstairs. ‘But you have to sit down up there.’
We go into my bedroom, and he lies down flat on the bed.
‘Is it me or is the ceiling moving a bit?’ he says.
‘I think you’re drunk,’ I say, sitting down next to him. ‘Which would make sense since you downed a bottle of wine. Why did you do that?’
Ollie shrugs. ‘I did it before, a few weeks ago, and everyone was really impressed. So I thought I could impress everyone here with it too.’
‘I think you could find better things about yourself to impress people with,’ I say quietly.
