Night Road(14)

“You’re my best friend, too.”

Mia slumped to a sit on the cold sand. When Lexi joined her, they leaned together. “Tyler said I’m pretty,” Mia said. “Do you think he means it?”

“He’d be a fool not to.”

“We danced,” Mia said, her voice dreamy. She swayed for a moment and then went still. “I can’t feel my lips. Are my lips still there?”

Lexi burst out laughing. “I think we better get you home. Let’s go find Zach.”

Lexi helped Mia to her feet and led her friend through the crowd. They found Zach in the shadows by the side of the house. Amanda was throwing herself at him. At least Lexi thought she was.

“Zach?” Lexi dared. “Mia’s not in good shape. I think she needs to go home.”

At that, Mia doubled over and vomited into the grass.

Zach rushed to Mia’s side. “Are you okay?” he asked, putting an arm around her.

Mia swayed unsteadily, wiping her mouth. “I doan feel so good.”

“Amanda?” Zach said. “Can she stay at your house? I can’t bring her home like this.”

“As if,” Amanda said, making a sour face. “I’m not leaving the party this early. It’s barely midnight.” She gave Zach a long kiss and then walked away, flipping her hair as she headed back toward the keg.

“Mia can spend the night at my house,” Lexi said. “Eva will be asleep by now.”

Zach looked at her. “Really?”

“Sure.”

Zach guided Mia back to the Mustang and put her in the backseat. It was like trying to make cooked spaghetti stand, and by the time he was finished, Mia was laughing uproariously and spread out across the seat. Snapping her seatbelt in place took forever.

Lexi got into the passenger seat while Zach started the engine. He backed up slowly and drove out to the main road.

As they sped down the highway toward the bridge, his fingers tapped out a rhythm on the leather-covered steering wheel. The music coming through the stereo was unfamiliar to Lexi, but its beat was strangely addictive. Mia was humming in the backseat, out of tune, as usual.

At the trailer, Lexi got out of the car, and Mia was right behind her, stumbling out, laughing as she fell to her knees in the damp grass. “Less go to our hill,” she said, staggering back to her feet.

Zach rushed to his sister’s side, held her up. “Hey, Mia,” he said gently, “maybe you should go to bed.”

Mia smiled drunkenly. “Yeah. Tha would be good.”

Zach looked at Lexi. “I’ll wait until she’s in bed to leave, okay?”

“You don’t have to do that. I know you want to get back to Amanda.”

“You have no idea what I want.”

Stung, Lexi went to Mia, took her from Zach. “Let’s go, Mia.” She guided her best friend across the damp grass and up into the mobile home. In the living room, Mia collapsed to the floor, giggling and moaning. “Sshh,” Lexi said.

“I’ll jus sleep for a sec…”

Lexi left Mia on the carpeted floor for a minute and went back outside. From the porch, she stared at Zach. Slowly, she moved toward him. He was looking at her now, watching her even, and his attention made something in the pit of her stomach flutter. “S-she’s fine,” she said.

“What’s your hill?” he said.

“Mia and I hang out there. It’s nothing.”

“Can I see it?”

“I guess.”

Lexi was aware of his footsteps cracking on twigs and branches as they pushed their way through the heavy salal and brush. The path was so thin you could only find it if you knew where it was. When she emerged into the open again, it was onto a high bluff of untended land that overlooked a busy strip of the highway, the glittering casino, and the black Sound beyond. “I come out here all the time,” she said.

“It’s cool.” Zach sat down on the soft ground.

Lexi reluctantly sat beside him. They were so close she could feel his leg against hers.

She waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.

Silence stretched out, turned uncomfortable. “So you guys are checking out colleges next weekend. That’s cool,” Lexi finally said. It was all she could think of.

He shrugged. “Whatever.”

“You don’t sound very excited about it.”

“Mia says she’ll die if we don’t go to USC together. Don’t get me wrong, I want to go to school with her, too, and I want to be a doctor like the old man, but…” He looked out over the casino and sighed.

“But what?”

He turned to her, caught her looking at him. “What if I can’t cut it?” he said so quietly she barely heard his voice above the distant drone of highway noise.

She had known Zach for more than three years now, adoring him from a distance; she’d studied him like an archaeologist, culling through his words for hidden meaning. And never had he said anything like this to her. He sounded vulnerable and confused.

The night seemed to fall quiet; the buzz of the cars faded. All Lexi could hear was the beating of her heart and the even strains of their breathing. She was reminded of all the times she’d waited for her mother’s return, only to be disappointed, discarded. If there was one emotion she understood profoundly, it was uncertainty. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that Zach could feel the same way. It made her feel connected to him, in tune. For one split second, he wasn’t Mia’s brother; he was the boy she’d seen on that first day of school, the one who’d made her heart speed up. “I didn’t think you were ever afraid.”