“Oh, sorry,” I said, “I didn’t mean—”
“Saylor.” Bailey had me again, this time so tightly I knew there was no point in fighting her. “Let’s go.”
I went, although I told myself it was my choice. When we neared the kitchen, where Roo and Hannah were, I tried to stop, wanting to collect myself. But the momentum worked against me, suddenly and surprisingly, and just like that, I was down.
“Oh, shit,” Bailey said as I hit the floor. In the next beat, a wave of dizziness hit me, just as I was trying to get up again. Maybe better to stay where I was, I thought. The tile was actually kind of cool. Above me, I heard Bailey say, “Can I get a little help here?”
“What’s wrong?” a boy’s voice said. Roo. I needed to get up. Off the floor. I was on the floor, right?
“Drunk,” Bailey said flatly. “Help me get her outside.”
After all of Bailey’s dragging me and literal arm twisting, what happened next was smooth and quick: I felt hands beneath my arms, and then I was on my feet. But only briefly, because they didn’t seem to want to hold me. Luckily, I collapsed into someone’s side. Oh, right. Roo.
“Careful there,” he said, locking an arm around my waist. “One foot in front of the other.”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“I know.” Then, loudly, he said, “Make way, you guys! Coming through!”
Somehow, we got to the back door. I wasn’t sure of the specifics because I kept my eyes closed, due to the fact that this was super humiliating. Also, I was suddenly feeling a tiny bit sick. I just need air, I told myself, and a second later, like a wish granted, I felt myself surrounded by it.
“Where are we going?” Roo asked before pausing briefly to scoop up my legs so he was carrying me outright. “Just on the porch?”
“Let’s go down to the dock,” I heard Bailey say. She sounded far away. “Just so we have some space to think.”
At first when I got outside, I could hear voices and music, the party still close by. Now, though, we were moving away, all of it condensing to a distant hum beyond Roo’s footsteps. Finally, he put me down.
“Ah,” I said, spying the water nearby and reaching out to dip my hand in. Again, though, I misjudged my own weight and felt myself starting to tumble, until someone grabbed me by my hair. “Hey, OUCH that hurts!”
“Too bad,” Bailey said, pushing me into a sitting position. Then she bent down in front of me. “What are you trying to do? Drown while we watch?”
“I’m hot,” I moaned.
In response, she dumped the cup she was holding,scooping up some water, and flung it on me. I went from sweaty to soaked in seconds.
“Hey!”
“Sober up,” she commanded. “I don’t like you this way.”
“Bailey, come on,” Roo said, and from the sound and direction of his voice, I realized what I was leaning against was actually his legs. I turned, looking at them in the light thrown from the house, as he said, “She can’t help it. She won’t even remember this.”
“She will, because I won’t let her forget.”
“How many times have I pulled you out of parties?” he asked her. “Have a little compassion.”
“I’m compassionate,” she said, sounding just about anything but. “I just don’t understand how she got like this.”
“I’m guessing it was the beer,” he told her, deadpan. “How many haveyouhad?”
“Yes, but,” she replied, “I’m not lying on the dock on my back, staring at your calves.”
I laughed. Oh, wait, she meant me. I said, “What are these, anyway?”
A pause. Then Bailey said, sounding exhausted, “What’s what, Saylor?”
“These,” I said, pointing at the numbers on the back of Roo’s leg. “I saw them the first day, on the boat. And I’ve been wondering ever since.”
“Nautical coordinates,” he told me.
