Night Road(33)

She was ringing up a quart of fig and goat cheese ice cream when the phone rang. Thanking the well-dressed woman at the register, she answered, “Amoré Ice Cream Shop. This is Alexa. May I help you?”

“Lex, it’s Mia.”

“You’re not supposed to call me here.”

“The Ottomans are gone for the weekend.”

“So?”

“Kim’s having a party. We’ll pick you up at nine, okay?”

“Lexi,” Mrs. Solter said firmly. “That’s a business phone.”

“Okay,” Lexi said.

Mia said, “Later,” and hung up.

Lexi went back to work. From then on, the minutes seemed to crawl forward on sore knees, but finally the ice cream shop was closed up and Lexi was outside in the cold, waiting. All around her, Christmas lights hung from eaves and wrapped around potted trees in front of the local businesses. Bright banners hung from the lampposts, fluttering in the night air, and a giant illuminated star hung above Main Street.

A red SUV pulled up in front of her. Mia opened the passenger door and leaned out. “Hey!”

Lexi hurried around to the back door and climbed in the backseat, where Zach was waiting for her.

“Hey, Lexi,” Tyler said from the driver’s seat.

“Hey,” Lexi said, cuddling up to Zach.

“I missed you,” he said.

“I missed you, too.”

They’d been together last night, studying with Mia in the Farradays’ big media room (and making out whenever Mia left them alone), but it felt like a long time ago.

“I called your aunt,” Mia said. “She said it’s cool if you stay at my house tonight.”

Lexi leaned against Zach, rested her hand on his thigh.

She had to be touching him.

There were already about fifteen cars at the Ottoman house when they pulled up.

The four of them walked up the gravel driveway together. Noise from the party sounded muted and distant, until they stepped inside.

Music was playing at the edge of pain. The kitchen was wall-to-wall kids; a few more lay sprawled in the living room, making out, and through the glass pocket doors, they could see about ten more outside, standing around a fire.

Tyler pulled Mia into his arms and twirled her around, lifting her off her feet. Mia laughed and clung to him, and then they were kissing like crazy.

Zach took Lexi by the hand and led her out to the fire, where a group of football players were shotgunning beer.

“Zach … Zach … Zach…”

The crowd chanted his name as they approached.

Bryson stepped forward, holding a Coors Light. “Brewski, dude?”

“Tyler’s the d.d.,” Zach said. “Hell, yeah.” He took the beer, jammed a pen into its side, snapped the cap, and guzzled the whole thing in one shot. Wiping his mouth, he grinned at the crowd around him.

“You want one, Lexi?” Bryson asked.

“No, thanks.”

“Come on, Lexi,” Zach said, rubbing her arm.

She couldn’t deny him. “Fine. I’ll have a beer, but no shotgunning. I do my own laundry.”

Zach laughed and called out for another beer.

For the next two hours, the party roared forward; the crowd grew louder and sloppier and drunker. Every now and then, the air smelled like pot. Someone was always laughing, and then, suddenly, the music changed.

The soundtrack from The Little Mermaid started. Throughout the house, guys—including Zach—groaned. Lexi grinned. “I love it when a girl has the party.”

Mia appeared out of nowhere. In her expensive pink terrycloth sweatpants and thick white hoodie, she looked rumpled and drunk, a little unsteady on her feet. “It’s my song,” she said, grabbing Lexi’s hand, dragging her out onto the patio, where kids were dancing.

She hung on to Lexi, trying to move to the beat, but this close, Lexi could see how drunk Mia was, and how sad. “Mia? What happened?”

“Tyler is all over Alaina Smith.”

“Maybe you’re misreading the signs. You are pretty hammered.”

“I only shotgunned a few beers. And I’m not overreacting.” She leaned forward, whispered, “It’s ’cause she does it. All the guys know it.”

“If he loves you—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mia said. “The point is, I love him. So what am I waiting for?”

Before Lexi could answer, Tyler showed up and took Mia away, leading her off the makeshift dance floor. Lexi saw how pathetically happy Mia looked at his return. It saddened her because she knew how dangerous it was to love someone that much, and because she knew it was how she looked at Zach.

“My sister dumped you, huh?” Zach said, coming up behind her, taking her in his arms. “I would never do that to you.”

She turned into him, kissing him. She tasted beer and something else, something sharp and metallic. The look in his eyes was a little bleary, as if he couldn’t quite focus.

He kissed her again, deeply, and then, taking her hand, he led her through the party and down to the beach. He started kissing her even before they lay down. His hand slid up under her shirt, unhooked her bra. She knew she should stop him, but it felt so good, and when he touched her breasts, she felt as if she were floating, flying … She made a sound she’d never heard before. Behind them, distant now, the music changed, or went on, or even went off; she couldn’t hear anything except her own heavy breathing and the way he kept saying her name and whispering that he loved her.