And I grin, giggling into the open neck, taking a sip.
Chase is shaking his head.
And I take a second pull, feel it touch the bottom of my stomach, then pretend to hand it over. “Here you…” But I snatch it back, taking off with the liquor cradled in my arms.
However, I don’t get far before Chase’s bicep coils around my waist, and he wrenches me into him, lifting me off the ground.
The alcohol sprays from my mouth. I laugh hard, my knees meeting my chest. Chase makes good on snatching the bottle from my arms and returning me to my feet.
“Brat,” he mumbles, taking a swig.
I run my thumb across my bottom lip, collecting the rivulets of liquor that had fallen to my chin, sucking it back into my mouth and releasing it with a pop.
“You love it.”
But Chase drops his chin to his chest and shakes his head.
He doesn’t look at me, and my cheeks heat…again.
Heslips down next to Harlen, digs the base of the bottle into the dirt between his legs and busies himself instead by listening carefully to the notes Harlen is playing.
And I swallow, my mouth cotton dry, tasting the remnants of my unfiltered brazenness. I shove my hair behind my ears to help shift the embarrassment that colors my pale cheeks.
Then, I move for my best friend, sidling up beside her, taking a seat and burying my feet into the soft dirt.
Looping my arm through hers, I place my cheek to her shoulder, listening, when beneath Chase’s breath, he begins to whisper an entanglement of words; lyrics.
Goosebumps are sharp across Jade’s skin, leaching to mine as we sit, watching him.
It’s a moment now—and only a handful of times before—the four of us had been lucky enough to witness. Because Chase wasn’t one to share this part of himself. He gave it to us in small pieces, shards, that we all knew meant something.
When Chase wraps his trembling hand around the bottle between his legs and pushes it to his lips, Harlen picking at the last string, Jade straightens her back and jerks her chin toward her brother, then to Harlen.
“We should make a pact,” she says enthusiastically, drunkenly, though I’m still watching Chase as he takes anotherswig from the bottle, not looking at his sister. “Between the four of us,” she continues.
“What might this pact be?” Harlen asks with curiosity, shoving his guitar into his case and zipping it home. The bright-blue pick is pinched between his teeth. He flicks it with his tongue.
“Three years…okay…” She pauses, excitement wrapping around every word as she flicks her eyes eagerly between the three of us. “Just hear me out before you shut me out.” Another pause, this time to swallow. “In three years, when me and Laiken are nineteen, let’s leave Devil’s Peak, let’s go somewhere far away, across the country, to New York, the city of dreams, where you two…” she’s staring directly at her brother and Harlen. “Can get the fuck on a stage, and me and Laiken…” She turns to look at me. My best friend is smiling. “Can just go along for the wild, messy, chaotic ride.”
“With what money?” Chase asks, voice bare.
He fists a handful of dirt and watches it slide through the cracks at his fingers, perhaps like his dreams, aspirations, everything he might want to be.
Jade smiles as if the answer is as clear as the night sky lingering above us. “The shit you’ll save in the next three years, lazy ass.”
Harlen shrugs, then turns to Chase. “I’m in. I’ve always wanted to go to New York. I heard the girls—” Chase punches his best friend's bicep, and Harlen curls his shoulders to his ears laughing.
“You’re so gross,” I fist a handful of dirt and throw it in Harlen’s seedy face.
He’s coughing and spluttering when Chase clears his throat. He takes another pull from the bottle, letting it touch his chest before speaking.
“Three years…New York.” Chase diverts his eyes from the dirt that lay in front of him and levels them with mine. “The four of us.”
I’m watching him as Jade curls into my side, squeezes my arm so tight, trying not to wake up the night when she excitedly whisper-squeals, “New York, here we comeeeee!”
I smile, but I’m still watching Chase, and when he nods at me, I nod back, then to Harlen, too. My best friend squeezes me that little bit tighter, watching on as the four of us seal the pact, before she lets me go, pushing to her feet.
Jade brushes the dirt and leaves off her ass. “You boys better get writing.”
