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“Are you sure you weren’t with anyone else? Tried something?” I asked hopefully, even though I knew the answer. Zane was a straighter arrow than anyone I knew. I was pretty sure he’d maybe done some pot here and there. Anything more than that was a definite no.
Zane shook his head. “I was just sitting with what was left of the band. Jamie dared me to down the shark drink. I’m pretty sure the fin was a gummy of some sort.”
“Was it a special gummy?” I said around a gulp.
Please don’t make it anything worse. Oh, please.
“Pretty sure the whole drink was far more special than any of us knew.” Misery soaked Zane’s voice. “After that, it’s absolutely black.”
“I ate a gummy off the rim,” I recalled. “It didn’t taste funny. But I didn’t try the drink.”
“Wish I could say the same.”
I reached into the back and took my phone, and then opened my browser. I typed in Zane’s name and got over twenty hits.
Zane partying at Purgatory. Jamie laughing as he got onto the table. There were dozens of pictures from the club then there seemed to be a break in time.
Jamie seemed to have gotten in her usual brand of trouble. Was that a conga line?
“Do you remember this?” I handed Zane my phone.
“Uh, definitely not. Did I get on a table?”
I sighed. “Pretty sure there’s video.”
Cooper stopped at a red light and bounced his forehead on the steering wheel.
“What was I doing in Times Square?” Zane’s voice went shrill and high. “I hate Times Square.”
Cooper’s jaw was locked, and his knuckles were white on the steering wheel.
“This is why you didn’t want to tell me? What exactly would this accomplish?”
“You wouldn’t be a sickly grayish-white right now, that’s what.”
I lifted my chin. “You can’t shield me from being scared.”
“Yes, I fucking can.”
“No, you can’t. I’m a big girl. I can handle it.” I was pretty sure I was going to puke, but I could handle it after that. Probably.
My fingers shook enough that I fisted them and tucked them under my crossed arms.
“We don’t know anything for sure, but do you know anything else other than drugs that would make him black out and steal a freaking car?”
“What?” I twisted around to stare at Zane. “You stole the car?”
My stomach pitched. Maybe that puking thing wasn’t that far off.
All this was so out of character for him. For God’s sake, I wasn’t sure if he’d even ever lifted a bottle of water from a hotel room.
“I guess?”
“Oh my God. You don’t know?”
“What part of blackout aren’t you getting?” Cooper snapped.
“Don’t yell at me!”
