“Can you open this for me? The lid is frozen shut.”
My eyes flew open and I realized that I wasn’t with Paige. I was on my couch, thankfully covered with a blanket as Lily stood over me holding the ice cream container. The eleven o'clock news was on and I must have fallen asleep.
“Ryder?”
As I took the ice cream from her, I was dazed and a little annoyed. If I couldn’t have Paige in real life, at least let me have her in my dreams...
Ten
Paige
It had been about a week since my car had been towed and I was laying in bed trying to sleep, but my irritation and anger were growing by the minute.
I know people like to have friends over on the weekends. I get that you want to have a party now and then. But this was ridiculous. My neighbors treated this apartment complex like it was some kind of nightclub on the weekends. Ubers and Lyfts pulling in and out at all hours of the night. People walking up and down the hall outside my apartment, laughing and talking in full voice—not even attempting to be quiet. Many nights this went on until 3am, and it had been happening every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night since I moved in.
I’d tried calling the property management company and they never even called back. I called the cops who said they would “send someone out.” No one came. I would go and talk to them myself, but after what everyone had said about this neighborhood, frankly I was a little afraid to confront them.
So instead, I lay here at 1:00 in the morning listening to some chick puke on the sidewalk below and her friend telling her that she needed food and they should go to Tiny’s. I didn’t have the energy to tell them that Tiny’s was closed. I’d closed it myself when I left work earlier.
Angrily rolling over, I grabbed my phone to check Facebook or something until I could sleep. Before I got the chance, though, it rang. As soon as I saw the name and face on my caller ID, my heart froze. It was Bailey. Why the hell was she calling me at 1:00 am?
“Bail? Is everything okay?” My heart was pounding in my ears. What if it were something with Mom or Dad?
“Paiggggee.” I heard a lot of laughing and loud music. “Can you hear me?”
Unless Mom or Dad were having a medical emergency at a nightclub, this wasn’t about them. “I can hear you. What’s going on?”
“Paige?” The music was booming so loud we could barely hear each other.
“Bailey. Yes. I’m here. Can you hear me?” I felt like that guy on the Verizon commercial.
“The question is can YOU hear ME. I’m the one who called YOU? Member?”
Good lord. She was drunk off her ass. “Bailey, where are you?”
“I’m here. But the thing is, I need to go home, but I can’t go home because, I don’t know if you can tell this or not, but I had a couple of beers or two tonight and Mom would kill me if she knew. She’d say I was turning out just like you.” She then hiccuped and said, “No offense.”
“Bailey. Where is ‘here’? Where are you?” I figured I should at least get a location in case the call got interrupted or something.
“Paige?” She was slurring her words. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes, Paige. I can hear you.” Talking to drunk people is the worst.
“Not where Mom and Dad think I am, thasss for surreee. Am I right?”
“Where does Mom think you are?”
“She thinks I’m in my room.”
Shit. This was not good. “Are you at a party?”
“Yeah. Cameron’s parents are out of town and so I snuck out and got a ride from Aiden and Ryan.”
I had no idea who these people were, but she was right. Mom and Dad would kill her if they knew she snuck out and went to a party with two guys and got drunk.
“Are they bringing you back home?”
“Thas the thing. They’re passed out in the pool house. Thas why I called you.”
