-6-
JAY
Bass thumped from the dance floor. I stood in line for the bar, sandwiched between two drunk uncle-types. The guy in front of me swayed haphazardly to the music. It wasn’t even nine o’clock. How was he so loaded?
“Dude!”
The voice rang out from my left. Relief tore across Brody’s face as he hurried toward me. I clenched my jaw. Whenever Brody used dude instead of your name, it signaled trouble, or he was about to demand a favor.
When Dave said Brody was going to be a groomsman, I’d been surprised. I hadn’t realized they were still close. We’d played ball together and ran in the same circle in high school, but I had no clue what he’d been up to once I left for college. But now that I’d seen the enormous bridal party, I wondered if Brody was just there to fill the roster.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“You gotta drive Jeremy home.”
Did I know a Jeremy? “Who?”
“Dave’s cousin. Some of them were doing shots of Fireball during the cocktail hour, and he’s fucking wasted. He puked in a trashcan, right in front of Marcy’s mom.” Brody gripped the lapels of his tux jacket and straightened the coat on his shoulders as if uncomfortable. His voice dropped low. “Words were exchanged, man. She wants him to leave.”
“Sorry,” I said. “You’ve got to find someone else.” I was going to get my drink, and then start planning my next move with Kayla. Kissing her was already the highlight of my summer break. If Dave’s text hadn’t interrupted us, I was pretty sure we’d still be out there.
“You sober?” Brody asked. “Because pretty much no one else is, and this kid is fucked up.”
“Kid?” I groaned.
“He’s like, eighteen? Diapers, man. He can’t hold his liquor at all.”
If he was eighteen, of course not. Fuck. So, Brody wasn’t just asking me to give him a ride. “I’m not driving him to the hotel and then getting stuck with babysitting duty all night.”
Brody scowled. “You don’t get it. Marcy’s mom wants him gone. Like, from the face of the earth, gone.”
“What can I get for you?” the bartender asked. I hadn’t realized I was at the front now and holding up the line.
“He doesn’t need anything,” Brody said. He latched a hand onto my shoulder and tried to pull me from the bar, but I wasn’t the type of guy who was easy to push around. When I didn’t move, his expression soured. “Fine, dude. You’re not going to help? You can explain to Dave why you let his douche cousin ruin his wedding.”
Okay, I was thoroughly annoyed now. I tried to be a standup guy who was always there for his friends, and I didn’t like what Brody insinuated. I didn’t have time to call him on it, however. He turned and took two steps away from me, only to skid to a stop.
“Shit,” he muttered.
A guy appeared from the crowd and stumbled toward Brody. His suit was big. Too big. It didn’t fit him right, as if it had been borrowed. The tie was so loose it hung like a necklace around his neck. Judging by his glazed eyes, he was lit like I hadn’t been in years. This had to be Jeremy.
“Brody! Where’d cha go?” the guy slurred out.
“Let’s get you water and some air.” Brody slung an arm around the kid’s shoulders, basically holding him up, and cast a final glare at me.
Shit, shit, shit. “Wait a minute.” I followed him. “All right.” I wasn’t going to let Dave’s cousin die of alcohol poisoning, because that kind of shit put a real damper on an evening. “Give me a minute to say goodbye.”
“Yeah, me, too!” Jeremy blurted out loudly. “Goodbye, everybody! I’m going to miss you all. Everyone, except for Marcy’s bitch of a mom!”
An older couple nearby startled at the outburst. Fuck. I dug my keys out of my pocket and tossed them to Brody. “Get a head-start to my car. Black Dodge Charger.”
He snatched them out of the air and looked relieved.
I watched them shuffle off and grimaced. Twenty bucks said that kid was going to hurl in my car, and this was not how I wanted the rest of my night to go.
Neither Kayla nor Marcy were outside on the patio where I’d left them. I cut back through the ballroom and was ambushed by a guy who wanted to shoot the shit and ask for an autograph. I tried to wrap it up as quickly as possible without being a dick. I nodded unenthusiastically as he yammered on, but I strained my neck looking around for Kayla, and the newlyweds.
Every second that ticked by was one I didn’t have. Where’d they go? The interior of my car was on borrowed time. Kayla’s purse was still on the table, which meant she hadn’t come back to it yet. Should I wait there for her? And, what the hell was I going to say when she appeared? Inviting her back to my hotel room would make me sound like a presumptuous creep.
The hotel bar made the most sense. I’d force Jeremy to drink a gallon of water, make sure he was good, and then see if Kayla would meet me downstairs. I’d figure out how to cross the cock-blocking drunk-in-my-room bridge if I came to it.
My phone buzzed with an incoming text. Brody, asking my ETA. I’d given him my number during the planning of Dave’s bachelor party.
Me: Be there in a few.
Brody: Can u hurry? He’s being an asshole.
I didn’t have a pen to leave a note on a napkin for Kayla, and I wasn’t about to go through her purse for one. She had my number in her phone. If I didn’t find her on my way out, I felt confident she’d text me and I could explain what happened. I kicked myself. I should have gotten her number, rather than let her ask for mine. Usually I was more proactive, but she’d thrown me way off my game.
A final scan of the ballroom turned up empty for the blonde I’d been unable to take my eyes off all night. She was short, though. Kayla could be on the dance floor and I was missing her because the crowd was thick and the room was dark, but I couldn’t spare any more time looking.
When my friend Darius got hammered, not only was he unable to hold his liquor, he turned into a toddler. He was attracted to the most shiny and dangerous thing in the room, and you couldn’t take your eyes off him for a moment. My gut told me this Jeremy kid was the same way.
I scored a water bottle from the bar, and there was a tiny five-gallon trashcan by the entryway of the banquet room which I snagged. I felt bad taking it, but I was a desperate guy. I knew firsthand that puke was a smell that lingered, even when you had your carpets shampooed.
“What took you so long?” Brody demanded when I crossed the parking lot. It was dark outside now, but it was sweltering. The bugs were louder. My rental shoes were uncomfortable.
Everything irritated me. Because I was leaving when I didn’t want to. I hadn’t even said goodbye to Dave or Marcy. I really needed to do that.
Worse, I was worried Kayla was going to think I was blowing her off.
“I gotta go back,” I said.
“Fuck that.” Brody had shed his jacket, and sweat trickled down from his temple. “My girlfriend’s pissed I left her alone in there. She doesn’t know anyone.”
“I didn’t say goodbye to Dave.”
“It’s cool. I’ll tell him.” He gestured to the passenger seat of my car where Jeremy stared at his phone screen with an idiotic grin plastered on his face. “Thanks, Jay.” Brody’s voice was sincere. “Gotta be honest . . . I thought you’d have too big of an ego to even come to this thing. I’m glad I was wrong. Good luck this year.”
Bugs swarmed under the lights illuminating the parking lot, and before I could say anything, Brody took off, disappearing toward the country club’s entrance. I frowned. What the hell was that supposed to mean? I did my best to balance my talent with humility. To try to be confident without being cocky.
I climbed into the driver’s seat and glanced over at my passenger. Jeremy was still smiling like a fool, only now he wasn’t staring at his phone. His glassy eyes blinked at me.
“This is for you.” I shoved the trashcan into his lap. “Drink this.” I opened the water bottle and put it in his hand.
He stared down into the garbage bin like it was a bottomless pit. “I feel bad. I didn’t get you anything.”
A humorless laugh escaped from me. “That’s okay. How are you? How you feeling?”
“Awesome.” He beamed a smile. “Everything is spinning.”
“Great. If it starts feeling less awesome, aim for the can, dude.” I put my seatbelt on and started the car, cranking up the AC.
“Where are we going?” he asked. “Let’s go find some girls.”
I sighed as I pulled out of the parking spot and shifted into drive. “We’re going to the hotel, Jeremy. You’re going to sober up, and hopefully your drunk ass hasn’t ruined my chances.”
“With who?”
I wasn’t the type to talk about girls, but what was the likelihood he’d remember this convo tomorrow? “One of the bridesmaids.”
He slapped his hands onto both the console and the doorframe like the car was moving too fast for him. “Which one?”
“Kayla.”
“Fuck, the tiny blonde?” His head lolled forward. Was his neck suddenly made of jelly? “She’s so hot.”
Yeah, I was aware. Not just hot, but funny, and smart, too.
“I’d hit that,” he added. Only it was barely coherent, and made me want to shove his head in the trashcan.
“You’re going to be hating life tomorrow, Jeremy.”
“Nah. I feel great.” He shifted in his seat toward me, and the trashcan slipped from his arms. It clattered noisily against the dash. “I want to find some pussy.”
Jeremy was four years younger than I was, but it felt like he was a generation beneath me. The age gap between eighteen and twenty-two had to be the widest one possible.
“Sorry, buddy. You’re welcome to look for pussy in my hotel room, but I doubt you’ll find any.”
I glanced at him when we rolled up to a stop sign. At first I thought he was upset I wasn’t taking him to the bars, but then I realized what was happening. I grabbed the rim of the trashcan and shoved it back into his lap.
I turned up the volume on the radio as Jeremy emptied the contents of his stomach into the can. It only lasted the chorus of Run the Jewels’ newest release, and then Jeremy’s head lifted upright.
“Better?” I asked.
He nodded. Under the light of the streetlamp, he looked ashen and waxy.
“Repeat after me,” I said. “No more shots until I know my limit.”
He didn’t speak. Instead he gripped the trashcan tighter and heaved a second time.
“Close enough,” I said.