“Hell. No.” Poppy’s brother made sure to enunciate each word clearly.
"Go to Hell," I spat. I probably should have chilled on the insults as he was twice my size and could have definitely beat me up if he wanted to. Lucky for me, he wasn’t looking to fight teenagers when he was a mature college student. Instead, he gave me the scariest glare I had ever experienced.
Javier tugged on my arm "We’ve been here a while. How about we go?”
I shook my head. The only thing I processed from his sentence was the word ‘go’ and I was not ready to leave. "No. That asshole wouldn’t… uh…"
I couldn’t think of the right words to finish the sentence. Javier wasn’t hiding his worry anymore; I don’t think he could. He finished my sentence for me anyway. "He wouldn’t give you anymore."
“Yes!” I exclaimed like an excited toddler. “Don’t know why.”
“Maybe because you’ve had enough?” Javi framed it as a question, but he was stating it. “Which is weird because I didn’t even see you drink that much. You must have been sneaking it or something because I’ve been with you the entire night.”
There were times when he would pay less attention to me because he was talking to someone he knew. Since he knew the whole damn school, it gave me time to slip off. I was only secretive because I didn’t want him to freak out at the amount that I could drink. My tolerance had gotten decently high, so to others it was concerning. People were dramatic.
I put my index finger over my mouth and shushed him. I then moved my finger and pressed it against his lips so that heunderstood that I was shushinghim. His lips curled into a soft smile as he grabbed my wrist and gently put it back by my side.
"You’ve gotta go," I heard a higher-pitched voice say with disdain. I swirled around to see who was talking. It was the host herself, Poppy.
Javi pulled me closer to him so now I was pressed against his chest. The next few sentences that were exchanged I completely missed. They were talking super fast and I was more focused on being able to smell the cologne Javier had on. It was the same scent, vanilla, white musk, clean. I could smell him all day.
And then suddenly we were leaving and I had no clue why. I was blindly following Javier out of the door. If I had any sense of survival skills I would have thought twice about following someone with no clue what was happening. Too bad my survival instincts were shittier than those of a child.
"Where are we going?" I asked him quietly. I didn't want to leave the party, I had said that before. I wanted that alcohol hogger to give me another drink. I just wanted one more, that was it.
I heard him sigh. "Because."
"Because why?"
"Because we are," he snipped. Javier was irritated now, but I couldn't tell if it was because of me or Poppy. We pushed through the crowd for what felt like forever until we were finally outside.
Once outside I retracted my hand from his grasp and stomped my foot in place. Stubbornly, I said, "I'm not leaving."
He groaned as he ran a hand through his hair. "Elias, please stop making this difficult."
Ignoring him, I folded my arms and turned my head to the side. He tried to grab my arm again, but I moved away. I lost my balance, as one does, and hit my head on the wall behind me. Javier’s eyes flashed with concern, but once he saw that it didn'thurt me the anger washed over him again. I stepped away from him again and his nostrils flared.
He paced across the front porch a few times before glaring at me with pure annoyance and exasperation. I didn't budge so we had an intense staring contest.
"Your siblings aren't here, your friends have disappeared, and I'm not sure that anyone else in that house likes you enough to care about what happens to you." He wasn’t yelling, but his tone of voice did not rise as he berated me. "Which means that I am the only person who actually gives a fuck whether you are safe or instead dying from alcohol poisoning."
I heard him loud and clear even in my drunken state. I kept my mouth shut knowing that now was not the time to speak.
"You have to be the most stubborn person I have ever met in my entire life! For the sake of yourself and everyone else, quit refusing help from someone who actually wants to help you."
His breathing was loud as he chest rose and fell heavily. My rival then aggressively stuck his hand out for me to grab. "Now let’s walk to the damn car."
His arm stayed extending toward me as he took a couple of calming deep breaths. The yelling had snapped me back into reality. He didn't have to tell me again to listen to him.
I put my hand in his and he pulled me close to him before he wrapped my entire arm around his shoulder. We walked to his car—more like he carried me there. I was completely relying on him to keep me up.
Once we were in his car he buckled me up and then did the same for himself. I felt a sense of familiarity as I sat in his black leather seat and faced the glowing neon-teal LED strip running across the dashboard. I had only been in his vehicle a couple of times, but it felt calming.
It was crazy to me how many times I had sat in the front seat of his car. It was, what, three times now? Once because hehappened to find me in the middle of the night, twice because of the last party we both attended, and the third time was the ride to Thinkfast. Not to mention the time I rode on his motorcycle.
I was going to ask Javier to bring me to Ricky's house. I wasn't technically allowed to go to the Halloween party, but I showed up anyway. I had no idea whether or not my siblings would be home, but I knew for sure my aunt would be. That meant home was not an option.
She wouldn't notice as long as I showed up the next morning and acted like nothing had happened. She never checked our rooms at night, so a lot of the time she wouldn't see us until the morning anyway. It would be like I slept there all night. She would, however, notice if I showed up in the middle of the night. I didn't feel like being grounded.
