“He’s not fit to go inside,” Jessica said once their moods sobered. “They’ll never let him in the door like this.”
Tyler heaved a sigh, his shoulders rising and falling dramatically. “I’ll go back with him.”
“You’ll do no such thing!” Jessica protested. “What happened to being different people? What about the waterslide?”
Tyler narrowed his gaze. “Did he tell you what that was about?”
Jessica shook her head. “He got too…this”—she gestured to Jack’s inebriated form—“before he could explain.”
Tyler sighed and sat beside Jack, patting the spot beside him, and Jessica dropped down next to him.
“Jack is a good guy, you know?”
Jessica nodded. “I do.” That much was obvious, despite their brief time together.
“He’s our goalie, the glue that holds us all together. And because of that, he carries a lot on his shoulders. He’s shy. Despite his stupid good looking face,” Tyler said, turning to look at his friend then back to Jessica with an expression of disgust,“and the fact that he’s got girls clamoring for his attention all the time, he’s not really like Chad or Zach where he goes after what he wants.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying that, last night when he saw you with that other guy, he was pissed.”
Jessica shuddered at the memory of Joe, of letting him put his hands all over her…before he found someone better.
“Yeah,” Tyler said, catching her reaction to the mention of last night. “That’s pretty much how he felt. And I told him that here, on vacation where no one knows us, we have the opportunity to be different people than we are at home. To let loose.”
“And that’s what this is?” Jessica asked, dubious, gesturing at Jack.
Tyler snorted. “Not exactly what I had in mind, but yeah.”
“You stay here,” Jessica said firmly, rising and moving to stand in front of Jack. “I’ll get this one home.”
“Are you sure?” Tyler asked. “He’s…heavy.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “You go inside, have a good night. Go down that waterslide. Be a different guy.”
“Let me at least get you a cab,” he said, not waiting for a response before he moved toward the road and flagged down a speeding taxi. Then he helped Jessica load Jack into the car, and as he hurried inside, Jessica called after him.
He screeched to a halt and turned to her again, expectant.
“Don’t be too different,” she said. “Don’t become someone completely new.”
“I won’t, Jess,” he said, then nodded. “Take good care of my boy.”
“I will.”
As the cab driver pulled away from the curb, talking in rapid-fire Spanish that even Jessica’s passable fluence in the languagecouldn’t decipher, Jack leaned away from the door and fell across her lap.
She brushed his hair away from his forehead, and he gave her a soft smile, like a little boy being comforted by his mother when he’s half asleep.
“Hey Jess?” he said, words hushed and slow.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry I ruined your night.”
The corners of her lips tipped up. “You didn’t.”
“I did!” he whined, heaving himself upright, then gripping his head. “Oh fuck,” he said. “The room is spinning. Why are we moving?”
