Fighting Fate (Granton University #1)(35)

Finally, she caught sight of bouncing red curls. Some guy in a ball cap and a bright red shirt was helping Tess and Bailey slide into the back seat of an old, huge boat of a car. Upset they were deserting her and even more leery of whose car they were climbing into, Paige hurried after them.

“Bailey! Wait!” Waving her hand, she raced to catch up. What were they thinking, getting into a car with a complete stranger? But she barely glanced at the words Designated Driver branded across the guy’s chest before relief swamped her. Oh, what a good idea. And in that case…

“Can I ride back with you guys?”

Bailey frowned. “What about your date?”

Paige made a pained face. “He’s lame. I’m ready to leave.”

Scowling as if she wanted to say something snide, Bailey studied her a moment before rolling her eyes and muttering, “Okay, fine. Get in.”

When she disappeared into the car, Paige hurried to follow her. The designated driver continued to hold the door open for her, and she managed a winded, “Thanks,” as she brushed past, ducking her head before crawling into the backseat as well. When the door shut, Tess squealed out an excited sound.

“Paige, oh my God. There you are! I’m so happy to see you.” She leaned across Bailey to send Paige a huge, sloppy grin. Then she began to crawl over Bailey’s lap. “I want to sit by Paige.”

Paige’s mouth fell open as she watched the show. “Wow. You’re, like, totally drunk.”

“Gee, you think?” Bailey sent her a dry look, and then nudged Tess along when she got stuck trying to wiggle across her knees.

So busy watching her friends, Paige didn’t even notice the driver had gotten in and put the car into the gear until he turned a corner and Tess lost her balance. She tumbled off Bailey’s lap and began to roll into Paige’s.

“Whoa. Easy there.” She caught the drunk girl and deposited her back in the middle of the seat.

Satisfied with taking the opposite window seat as Paige, Bailey scooted to her new spot and arched a brow as she watched Paige try to keep Tess from rolling around. “So you’d seriously rather help me babysit Miss Lush here than stay at the party with your date, huh?”

“Yes.” Paige wrapped a seatbelt around Tess, fastening her in.

“But—”

“Where to?” the DD asked, his voice barely audible over the hum of the engine.

“Grammar Hall,” Bailey answered, not taking her gaze off Paige. “What happened, Paige?”

Smoothing her hair back behind her ear, Paige shrugged and turned to stare out her window. “What do you mean? Nothing happened.”

“Ooh, is that why you wanted to leave?” Tess asked with a messy giggle. “Because nothing happened and you wanted it to?”

Paige wrinkled her nose. Maybe she’d been hopeful something might happen before she’d left this evening. But actually being in Reggie’s company outside of the classroom for more than five minutes had cured her of that. They totally did not mesh.

“Not hardly,” she muttered. “I was ready to leave because he was too busy socializing with everyone else and ignored me pretty much the entire evening. I didn’t know anyone but you two, and you all disappeared about as soon as we got there. Where did you go?”

Bailey sighed. “I don’t know. But this hot guy invited us into some room where a bunch of people were taking Jell-O shots. No way could we actually to say no to him. He was just so…hot.”

“Then Derick showed me how to properly take a Jell-O shot,” Tess announced, speaking up as she nodded enthusiastically.

Paige blinked. “Who’s Derick?”

Looking momentarily blank, Tess murmured, “I don’t know.”

“It was Dorian.” Bailey rolled her eyes. “Not Derick. And he’s the star quarterback of the football team. You know, Dorian Wade. I didn’t like how he kept looking at her, so I got us out of there.”

Tess puckered her brow in confusion. “How was he looking at me?”

Bailey sighed and stared at her window. “Like he wanted you for breakfast.”

“Oh God, I think I’m going to be sick.”

“I know. It was so gross I—”

“No, I’m going to throw up. For realz!”

Instantly, Bailey and Paige hugged both backseat doors, one taking the left, the other taking the right.

“Driver, could you pull over?” Paige asked as Tess leaned over her lap. “Now!”

But it was too late. Even as the car swerved to the curb and screeched to a halt, Tess vomited all over the front of Mariah’s sparkling red dress.

Closing her eyes so she didn’t join in, Paige tried to hold Tess’s hair back by feel alone. When the car jarred to a halt, she fumbled blindly for the door latch and spilled onto the sidewalk, gasping in a lungful of fresh air.

Tess and Bailey tumbled out behind her. Though it was virtually impossible to shake out such a tight skirt, Paige tried to grasp hold of the hem and shake the bile off her dress while Bailey hustled Tess to a row of nearby bushes. Unable to believe her ears because she’d thought everything inside Tess now dripped from her lap, she listened to her suitemate retch some more.

The driver had already gotten out of the car and popped the trunk. When he emerged with a spray bottle and thick roll of paper towels, Paige pounced. Turning to him, she opened her mouth to ask if she could borrow some paper towels.