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* * *
“I should go.Ed will be pissed if he catches me out this late.”
“Do you want a ride?” I pull her back by her hand.
“No, it’s only a few houses down.”
“Are you sure?”
She nods before giving me a soft kiss. When she pulls away, her eyes have darkened, and her cheeks are flushed. The look she’s giving me is enough to make me want to carry her back out to our tree, but I let her go. I don’t want her getting into trouble.
With Alissa gone, I keep a better eye on Mason. He looks way too comfortable with Lindsey on his lap. I grab a beer and watch them from across the fire. I have to find a way to get through to him.
“Where’d that hot ass girlfriend of yours go?” Sean asks, coming to stand beside me.
“She had to get home,” I answer, never taking my eyes off Mason.
“What are you looking at?”
I nod across the fire at him. “My little brother getting too comfortable with that girl.”
He laughs and shoves against my shoulder. “Why are you worried? He’s a freshman and the star of the soccer team. I’d be worried if he wasn’t trying to get laid.”
My eyes flash to him, and I offer up a dirty look. “He’s too young to be getting that serious with a girl.”
“I’m pretty sure we were both freshmen when we scored for the first time. You need to relax and take a shot.” Sean puts his arm around my shoulders and leads me over to a table set up in the yard. It’s covered with various bottles of liquor.
He pours us both a shot and hands one over.
I hold it up, looking at it.
“Come on, man. It’s your birthday. Have a little fun.”
I laugh at him trying to convince me. Then I tip the shot glass up, letting the warm liquid spill into my mouth. I chase it with a drink of beer, trying to ease the burn of the alcohol.
I cough and take another sip. “Man, that stuff is like gasoline. What is it?”
He smiles and answers, “Jack.”
I slam the shot glass down, and he pours another. Before I can decline, the glass is shoved back into my hand. The second shot hasn’t even settled in my stomach yet, but the first one is kicking in, and everything’s starting to blur together. I didn’t drink much with Alissa here, but now that she’s gone, I have nothing better to do than get wasted and enjoy my party.
* * *
When I wakein the morning, my head is pounding, and my stomach is churning. I roll to my back and suddenly, roll off the bed, landing hard on the floor.
I cough, trying to catch my breath after such a hard hit.
My head spins as I look around the room. Sean is passed out in the lounge chair in the corner.
After I push myself up to my feet, for a brief minute, it feels like my head is outrunning my body. Sinking back to the edge of the bed, I hold my head in my hands.
“I feel like shit,” Sean groans from the corner. I guess all the noise I made rolling out of bed woke him.
“Shhh, my head is killing me.” I rub my temples and forehead in an attempt to soothe away the pain. What a great way to spend my seventeenth birthday: hungover.
He stands quietly and walks out of the room. Within minutes he’s back handing me two Tylenols and a glass of water.
Quickly, I throw the pills back and wash them down. Falling back on the bed, I go back to sleep.
