The Falling (Brightest Stars, #1)(41)

Someone’s music was playing on the TV screen when we went inside. It was a Halsey song, so I knew I’d like at least one of these random people. I was relaxing a little now, since the party wasn’t out of hand. Austin had been right about the party—so far, anyway. Everything was more low-key since it was a Sunday night. There were only about ten people there, and everyone seemed to be older than high school, thank God. And there was no sign of Sarina or any of her other friends, and as far as I knew, she was Austin’s only recent high school hookup. He said she lied about her age. I didn’t know if that was true or not. No sign of Austin, which meant he was either outside smoking or in some room with a girl. As long as it wasn’t my old room and the girl was of age, I didn’t care.

Five or six people were dotted around the living room. The rest were in the kitchen, crowding the booze counter. There wasn’t much to speak of: a bottle of vodka, a much bigger bottle of whiskey, and tons of beer. We stayed in the kitchen, moving around a guy and a girl who seemed to be mid-argument, and passing a man wearing a gray beanie. I couldn’t see his hair, but I suspected he was a soldier, based on his build. My brother always seemed to gravitate toward people in service, even when we were in high school.

Austin and I made a pact from a young age that neither of us would ever even consider enlisting, but he still had a natural draw to Army life. Whether it was out of habit or comfort—the pull of the familiar and all that—I didn’t know. His curiosity scared me sometimes.

Kael stood near me by the kitchen sink, not touching or speaking, but close enough that I could smell the cologne on his shirt. The smell was sweet, and it made me wonder if he had other plans tonight. I grabbed a plastic cup from the stack and poured in a little bit of vodka and a lot of cranberry juice.

“Want one?” I asked Kael.

He shook his head no. He seemed tense. Whether he was more tense than usual, I couldn’t say. He looked at me as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t. His eyes leveled on the cup in my hand.

“I’m only having one since I’m driving,” I explained, slightly defensive. Guilt didn’t really feel appropriate, since I could crash upstairs in my old bed if I needed to. I still hadn’t seen my brother, and we had been there for at least twenty minutes.

“I don’t drink much.” I didn’t need to explain myself further, but did anyway.

Kael’s attention was all over the kitchen. His eyes were a bit robotic, scanning every detail of the room. It was like he wanted to be present, but his mind was wandering back and forth between here and somewhere else. I tried to guess where, and even considered straight-up asking him, but the idea made my heart pound.

“I’ll take a beer,” Kael said, after I downed half my drink.

I handed him a can from the bin in front of me, next to the partition between the living room and kitchen. Shelves full of eight-by-tens of my dad and Estelle, and me and Austin when we were young, stared back at us. My mom had long since been erased from the record.

Kael studied the beer for a moment, rolling it in his hand before popping open the tab.

“Natural Light, huh?” He raised his brows. They were so thick they shaded his deep-set eyes and helped hide him from the world. Like he needed help with that.

“Yep. The best of the best.” I took a gulp of my vodka mixture. I felt it fast, my cheeks and tummy warming up.

Kael took a drink of the watery beer. I lifted my cup to touch his can. “Happy birthday! You’ll be drinking legally in about three hours,” I joked.

“And you in a month,” he said, taking a swig of the beer and making a face. I didn’t blame him. I much preferred vodka over heavy bubbles of beer. It was my go-to when I drank. Drink less, feel more.

Another plus with vodka: I knew exactly how much to drink before I would get too drunk. I’d pretty much mastered vodka. I’d been drinking it since Austin and I had gone to that seniors-only party back in Texas.

Austin and I were probably the only freshmen there. We scanned the place when we arrived, but it didn’t take long until Casey, a preppy seventeen-year-old, made a beeline for Austin. She was one of the popular seniors. Popular. I hated that word. Austin didn’t, though. He knew it was his way in. The moment he complimented Casey’s eyelashes—it was something lame, like, “You have the longest eyelashes”—well, that was it. Five minutes later, they were tongue to tongue, and I was left to wander the party by myself.

The only person who talked to me was a boy who had a mustard stain on his shirt. He had sharp canines, like a wolf, and he smelled like orange Lysol. I left him in the hallway by the bathroom and found the vodka bottle in the freezer. It was cool going down. That’s probably why I drank so much so fast. Too much. Too fast. I ran to the bathroom with my hand covering my mouth, holding in the vomit. Unfortunately, I ran into Lysol guy again, and he looked at me like I was the pathetic one. Maybe I was? I mean, I was the one pushing people out of the way to get to the toilet.

But that was then and this was now. This party was different. I was different. I had learned to hold my liquor. And I was no longer the girl who couldn’t walk away from a creepy guy without second-guessing herself. I felt safe with Kael. Interested and interesting. Like I was the senior at this party.





CHAPTER THIRTY




Kael was taking everything in. He wasn’t obvious about it, but he was watching. Analyzing. Paying attention.