“You’ve played beer pong before, right, Alex?” Brinley turns toward him, and he shrugs.
“I don’t go to a lot of parties.”
“Great,” she mumbles.
“Oh, we’ve got this in the bag.” Fletcher and I high-five, and then I point at Brinley. “You two can start.”
What the hell just happened?” My eyes, as well as Fletcher’s, Brinley’s, and Alex’s, are all on the now-empty staircase because some girl just kissed Zeke and then dragged him upstairs.
No words were spoken between the two of them. As if they had some weird understanding between them.
“Exactly what happens at every party. Zeke’s going to get laid.” Fletcher turns back to the game and easily sinks a ball into one of their cups. Alex polishes off the contents.
“He’s wearing Cam’s jersey, though. Cam doesn’t just sleep around,” Brinley argues.
“We don’t know what he does in his spare time,” Fletcher replies.
“Accordingto Ember—”
“My family doesn’t know about my sex life; I doubt he’s sharing any details of his with her.” Fletcher cuts Brinley off as I sink my ball into another one of their cups. Brinley drinks this one.
“Maybe not.” She uses her sleeve to wipe the little bit of beer off her face. “That was weird, though, right? He was talking to two other girls, and she just walked up and kissed him. That takes balls.”
“Did she look familiar to anyone else?” Fletcher taps his chin. “I swear I’ve seen her before.”
“This is a college party, Fletch; you’ve probably seen her on campus.” Brinley perfectly sinks a ball into one of our cups, but it doesn’t matter because Alex misses.
“I know it’s a college party, Tatum.” He rolls his eyes, grabs a ping pong ball, and finishes up the game. “But I swear I’ve seen her around before.”
“She was wearing a mask. And we saw her for like five seconds.” Brinley laughs, pulling on Alex’s arm to get him to follow her. “We’re gonna head out.”
“Brinley Sanderson, I can’t let you drive home. Not when you’ve been drinking.” I step in front of them.
“I’m not driving. Alex is. He’s barely had anything.”
“And we’re parked down the road, so a walk in this cold will sober us right up.” Alex rocks back on his heels. “I’ll get her home safe. I promise.”
“Fine. I’m holding you to that. Brin, text me once you get home.”
“I will,Mom.” She gives me a quick kiss on the cheek and then waves to us as she heads toward the front door.
I follow Fletcher into the kitchen, where he grabs a piece of pizza, and I grab a handful of chips and a bottle of water.
“I’d say Zeke’s party has been a success,” he says through a full mouth of pizza.
“The night’s still young.” I chuckle.
Fletcher’s eyes leave mine and find someone behind me, “When’d you get here, sunshine?”
I turn around to find Jaxon digging into the pizza box.
“What do you mean? I’ve been here all night. You saw me earlier,” he argues.
“Kind of disappeared after Brinley got here with Alex.” I cross my arms, resting against the kitchen island.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Jax, we’re not stupid. You’re avoiding Brinley.” Fletcher places a hand on Jax’s shoulder, but he shrugs it off.
