She loops her arm through mine. “So,” she says. “Do you like to dance?”
I want to tell her that yes, I do love dancing. I just don’t want to dance with you. But I know that will be rude so I have no choice but to politely accept the offer. When we get to the floor, I can see all of my friends there. Holden is dancing with someone who isn’t Jamie, because I’m sure no matter how much he denies that the news #HT leaked didn’t mean a thing, I know for a fact that it does matter to him because he cares about Jamie. The only people missing are Jamie and Daniel because ever since the news went public, neither of them has been hanging out with any of us and of course that’s not a coincidence.
And last but not the least, I see Teague and Mia, having the most fun and Teague looks like he owns the world.
I’d feel that way too if I had the love of my life dancing with me.
I’m happy for them but there’s this tiny part of me that’s angrier than it’s supposed to be and I feel like an awful person for feeling that anger.
I wish I was like them, I wish I could just drown myself into liquor or drugs or women to distract myself, I wish I could find escape from everything inside my head…
It just doesn’t work that way.
What I need, is off-limits.
But it doesn’t have to stay that way forever, Sebastian.
The Drunk Situation
TEAGUE
I stop the car in front of Holden’s family home. For a town as small as ours, the Holden family estate might as well be a fucking castle.
Holden is more shit-faced than a pirate in the open seas. “Can you walk or will I have to carry your sorry ass?”
“I can walk,” Holden says, taking out a flask and placing it to his lips. I grab the flask from him and throw it out the window. “Consider this an intervention,” I say. “Now get going.”
“You think I’m a mess, don’t you?” Holden says. “You think I’m a mess because some woman cheated on me? You think I’m that fragile?”
“If it looks like a duck Holden, it probably is!”
“Fuck you!” Holden says and fumbles with the door but he can’t get out until I open it for him. Instead of going inside the house, he starts looking for the flask among some bushes.
I get out of the car, and I almost have to pull him towards the front door and I press the buzzer. It takes some time but finally his mother answers the door. She looks at the time. Then at us. “Thank you for bringing him back, Teague.”
“No problem, Mrs. Danvers.” I drag Holden inside the threshold and we head upstairs to his room.
“I’m fine,” Holden says. “You’re wasting your time.”
“Yeah, you’re fine.”
I somehow manage to get him inside his room and on his bed and take off his shoes and tuck him in, cover him with a blanket. “Why’re you doing this?”
“Why? I’m your friend, Holden. That’s why.”
“I don’t have friends.”
That stings, but I know he’s only saying this because of all that pent up emotion so I let it go. “Holden,” I say. “You have friends. If you didn’t, you would b
e puking in some gutter right now or spending the night in a jail cell for public drunkenness.”
He sits up in bed. “I hurt you.”
“Yes, you hurt me Holden! We’ve been friends since grade school!”
“You haven’t slept with Jamie too have you?” Holden says. “I mean, I’m not going to find out through some fucking tabloid that you fucked her too, will I?”
“Holden,” I say. “Did you ever consider the possibility that #HT person is lying? That the report is fake?”