Thea switched on the faucet, swishing water across her torso with a huff. “I bumped into Heidi when she was carrying a tray of Bloody Marys.”
“Ah, yes, Heidi,” hummed Bryce, sourness lacing her tone.“That’swhy you disappeared.”
“It wasyouwho disappeared, actually.” Thea began dabbing at her dress with tissue, but it did absolutely nothing but leave lint peppering her dress. Bryce sighed and pulled a mile’s worth of paper towels from the dispenser, dampening it with soap before trying to help. “WithPeter.”
“I did no such thing.”
The dress was a lost cause, so Bryce abandoned the paper towels in the sink. The stain had only faded slightly, and there was no way her clumsy hands could get it out with only cheap hand wash. Besides, a celery stick was still snagged on the gauzy fabric of the skirt and Bryce had skipped dinner, so she plucked it free and bit on the crunchy end without thinking.
“You’re drunk,” Thea observed.
“You’redrunk. And you’re in love with Heidi. Why is there celery in your dress?”
Thea wrinkled her nose, and it only reminded Bryce of how much she missed her usual freckles when they were covered by makeup. “No.You’rein love withPeter.And I already told you. Bloody Marys.”
“I came in here toescapePeter.” The stale celery wasn’t helping Bryce’s unsettled stomach. She threw the remains into the trash can and pulled out her phone again. Still no new text messages. It was only midnight, so she doubted Liv would already be asleep. She could think of no other reason why she wouldn’t be answering her drunk, concerned, sister’s texts. “And to call Liv. She isn’t picking up.”
“I bet she’s just busy with her friends.”
“I shouldn’t have left her alone.” Her hands shook as she dialled Liv’s number again. It went straight to voicemail this time, and her heart plummeted. “Her phone’s turned off. I have to go. Something might’ve —”
“Bryce.” Thea’s warm, damp hands curled around her own, gently, tying Bryce’s frayed nerves back together until she could breathe again. “She’s okay.”
“I have to go home.” Tears pricked Bryce’s eyes. Because she couldn’t have just one night off. Because she couldn’t just relax and be the fun best friend Thea wanted her to be. Because she had to be sensible and serious and a mother when she hadn’t even had anyone to teach her how to do it properly.
“Then let’s go home.” One of Thea’s hands tangled with Bryce’s while the other combed soothingly through her hair. “It’s okay. Let’s go home.”
Bryce nodded and let Thea guide her wobbly frame back through the bar. She hid herself from Peter, who now sat on a barstool talking to the naggingly-familiar-but-she-still-couldn’t- place-him bartender dressed as Beetlejuice, and sent a quick wave to Mikey, who was too invested in a conversation with Hannah’s friends to notice. And then they fell out into the cold night, and Bryce let Thea hold her up then, too. All the way home.
* * *
Apparently, Thea had given Liv too much credit in telling Bryce she’d be okay on her own. A trashed house awaited them when they got back to Bryce’s, empty beer bottles collecting on the floor and crushed bags of chips spilling out onto the patchwork settee. A few kids Thea had never seen before were passed out on top of the mess, a rerun of some trashy reality show blaring from the TV. She found the remote wedged between the arm of a teenage girl who snored loudly and turned it off. None of them stirred.
She felt Bryce suck in a sharp breath behind her, straightening as though the sight was enough to sober her up immediately.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Bryce toed one of the beer bottles, glassy eyes blazing with anger. “I’m going to kill her.”
“Bryce —” Thea began, but it was too late. Bryce marched through the living room and down the corridor in as straight a line as she could manage and flung open the door to Liv’s bedroom. Thea half-expected smoke to curl from her ears with all the anger that bristled from her.
“Olivia Grace Nicholls, get your ass out of bednow!” Bryce flicked on the light, the room spilling with an intensely bright wash of yellow.
Liv poked her dishevelled head out from beneath her covers, revealing a friend on either side of her who appeared equally as confused. She yawned without bothering to cover her mouth. “What?”
“‘What?’” Bryce repeated, voice rising to a piercing crescendo. “‘What?’”
“Bryce.” Liv pushed the covers back, revealing her pajama shorts. The other girls were still dressed and wide-eyed. Good. They should be afraid of Bryce. In this state, Thea sure as hell was. “Calm down.”
Thea reached to touch Bryce’s arm, but Bryce snatched it away.
“No, Liv, I won’tcalm down!”So much rage trembled in Bryce’s voice that Thea began to wonder if she should start hiding any sharp or heavy objects. “I trusted you foronenight, and you betrayed me.”
“YousaidI could have friends over,” frowned Liv.
“And either I can’t count, or there’s a hell of a lot more than the three people we agreed upon in here. And I saidno drinking!”
Liv’s face drained of color, eyes darting to her friends and then back again. Clearly, she hadn’t expected to have been caught. In that case, Thea thought, it was a rookie move to have left the empty bottles lying around. The teens were surely smarter than that.
“Bryce,” Thea whispered, eyeing Liv’s petrified friends with a wince. “Let’s talk about this rationally.”