She was so tired. Her legs hardly felt strong enough to hold her up, yet she was still walking. Sounds of people laughing and loud music had faded into a dull hum. Where was she again? She couldn’t remember anymore. Everything looked strange. Swallowing hard against the nausea that was quickly overcoming her, she made her way to a slanted doorway and stumbled in. She was just so tired; all she wanted to do was sleep...
And then everything went black.
Eight Hours Earlier
“I changed my mind. I don’t wanna go.” Lily crossed her arms across her chest.
Lindsay sighed and sat down next to her. “Lily, you’ll be fine.”
“They don’t like me!” Lily exclaimed.
“Tosh.”
“Tosh? What kind of crazy word is that?”
“Now you sound like your brother.” Lindsay smiled at her.
“He’s not my brother,” Lily mumbled, but she seemed to get the point.
“Details.” Lindsay stood up. “Here’s the deal, you’re going to the sleepover and you are staying for a total of two hours. If you aren’t having fun by then, call Jess on his cell, he’ll go pick you up.”
“Excuse me?” Jess asked, walking into the room. “I couldn’t have possibly heard that last sentence right.”
Lindsay ignored him. “Okay, Lil?”
“Fine.” Lily nodded, but she still looked apprehensive.
“I did not say I was going to do that.”
Lily smiled at her. “Thanks, Lindsay.” A quick hug and she disappeared.
“I am not Lily’s chauffer.”
“Of course you aren’t.” Lindsay patted his head. “I’m starving. Come with me to get some pizza?”
“Will saying no make any sort of difference?”
“Probably not.”
“Sure, why not.”
***
The pizza shop was crowded, full of tourists and teenage locals. Jess leaned against a booth while Lindsay ordered their pizzas, ignoring annoyed looks from the booth’s inhabitants.
“Well if it isn’t Jess freakin’ Mariano.”
Jess cringed. He knew that voice. He really didn’t like that voice.
That voice was trouble.
“Hey, Astrid.”
He’d dated Astrid briefly during his last visit, in an all-thoughts-tossed-aside attempt to eradicate Rory from his system. It had failed, and he was left with the party girl of Venice Beach. They’d broken up after only a couple weeks, but it had been plenty long enough for Jess.
“So, my cousin and his friends are coming in from LA and we’re having a party for them tonight. You should come.”
Jess had just opened his mouth to say something to the effect of “hell no” when he heard Lindsay walk up behind him.
“That sounds like fun.”
He seriously wanted to kill her, to wrap his hands around her scrawny little neck and strangle her. It was enough she’d tricked him into paying for the pizza, now she wanted to hang out with his ex-girlfriend? This was not cool.
Astrid looked annoyed. “Great,” she said sarcastically. “I’ll see you two at seven then.”
As she walked off, Jess let out a groan and punched Lindsay in the arm. “Thanks a lot.”
“What did I do?” Lindsay was the picture of utter innocence.
“I don’t want to go to that stupid party!”
Lindsay beamed. “Yes, but you obviously hate Astrid, and I figured the two of us coming would piss her off. Am I wrong?”
Well, no, but Jess wasn’t about to admit that. “You owe me big, Lister.”
“Whatever.” Lindsay grinned. She loved having the last name Lister again. She’d been so confused when she’d gotten here, unsure of what to do or how to act. Somehow she’d expected being divorced to feel different. She wasn’t sure how, but that’s what she’d thought would happen.
***
Jess couldn’t believe she’d talked him into this.
Lately, he found himself doing all sorts of things he hadn’t planned on. This party was just one of them. He told himself he was just trying to be nice, that he felt sorry for her. That was the only reason he was being kind to her.
Jess shoved both hands into his jeans pockets, wishing that Lindsay hadn’t confiscated his book on their way out the door. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to enjoy this. Astrid’s crowd had always gotten on his nerves, and he could already hear loud music coming from the brightly lit yard they were walking towards.
“Ooh! Dancing!”
“No.” He had to draw the line somewhere, and getting shoved in the crowd of drunken people dancing in the grass in front of the speakers was his. There would be absolutely no dancing.
Lindsay rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She ran over to the group and infiltrated herself easily, swaying to the badly written hip hop song that was playing.
She could dance pretty well, he noticed. Rory had all the grace of a hippo in stilettos.
But he wasn’t thinking about Rory.
Jess wandered over to the sidelines, staring longingly at the bowl of bright red punch, knowing it probably had a dozen different kinds of liquor in it. Honestly, he wanted nothing more than to get smashing drunk, but Lindsay was not driving his car home.
An hour later, he’d relented and was about to take the first sip of his small cup of punch when his cell phone rang. Cursing, he set down the plastic cup and pulled out the phone. “What?” he snapped.
There was a pause. “J-jess?”
“Lily?” Jess forgot about his punch. “Are you okay?”
A sniffle. “I d-don’t want to b-be here anymore.” Another sniffle. “The girls are being mean to me and I j-just wanna go home.”
“All right.” Jess sighed, looking over to where Lindsay was laughing and dancing still. She wouldn’t be thrilled about leaving. He, however, was thankful for the excuse. “I’ll be there in a half hour. Can you hang on that long?”
“Yeah. Thank you, Jess,” she whispered.
Jess hung up the phone and shoved it into his pocket. Abandoning his punch, he strode over to where Lindsay was ‘getting her groove on’ with some guy. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the music. “We have to go.”
“What?” Her face fell and she had the appearance of a toddler who isn’t getting dessert that night.
“Lily called. She wants to go home.”
“Oh.” Lindsay frowned. “She wasn’t having a good time?”
“Didn’t sound like it.”
Lindsay began walking with him towards the car and then paused. “Hey! Can I just stay?”
“What?”
“Stay. Me. Here. You can come back and get me after you drop Lily off. There isn’t enough room in your car for more than one passenger anyway.”
Jess made a face. “That’s only because Jimmy made me retrieve some sort of pickle shipment today.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“That I didn’t.” Jess sighed. “I don’t really know these people that well…”
Lindsay took that as a yes. “See you in an hour!” she called over her shoulder.