He’s not entirely wrong. What he doesn’t know, though, is the curfew is self-inflicted. He doesn’t know my situation at home or that on any other night, I wouldn’t be here.
Tonight though, I’m lucky because it’s the night the respite worker comes to relieve me. It has been a couple weeks of her coming, and Dad loves her. It makes it easier and easier for me to step away for the six hours she is there.
“Thank you,” I tell Jason as he hands me my drink.
“No problem. I’ll see you guys later,” he says before moving to help someone else out.
“Will he be working all night?” I ask Wyatt.
Wyatt shakes his head. “Nah, we have the freshmen broken into groups. They take turns bartending for an hour.”
“Oh, that’s not bad.”
“Do you want to dance?” he asks, changing the subject.
“Sure.”
He leads me back toward the living room and pulls me into his arms. Bodies bump up against us as we begin to move. The place is crowded and a sensory overload, but I don’t mind. Something out of the corner of my eye catches my attention and I turn my head.
Kyle stands on the edge of the room, arms crossed, glaring daggers at us.
It’s so different than when I came here after our breakup. He was the one dancing with someone else while I ran off upset. Tonight, he hadn’t even crossed my mind until I saw him.
Wyatt shifts us and brings his head down, his lips brushing over the shell of my ear. “You okay?”
“Never better.”
I pull my eyes away, focusing back on Wyatt. Kyle is my past, and no matter what happens with Wyatt, there is no future with Kyle. I could let Kyle’s dirty looks get to me, I could be upset that he’s here, but at this point, I genuinely don’t care about him.
All I care about right now is Wyatt. I’m going to soak up every minute I have with him as long as I can, and no one is going to stop me.
Tonight has been great. Better than I could have imagined. Lyla has been able to relax and have a good time. It’s like she knows her dad is safe, so she doesn’t have to rush back to him.
I thought for sure when she saw Kyle was at the party that she would try and dip out early, feigning having to get home, but she didn’t. She didn’t let him being here and glaring at us from across the room stop her from enjoying herself.
Thank fuck, because if she had, I probably would have lost my mind.
The bathroom door opens, and I look up from where I sit on the edge of my bed. Lyla walks out of the bathroom, her lip pinned between her teeth as she looks at her phone screen.
“Everything okay?” I can’t help but ask.
Lyla sighs. “Yeah, I just realized how late it is. I actually need to head home to let the respite worker head home.”
“Okay, let’s go,” I say as I stand.
She looks up at me in confusion. “What do you mean, ‘let’s go’?”
“Well, I don’t know if you’ve looked outside recently, but not only is it late, it’s dark out. I’m going to give you a ride.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t need a ride, it would be a waste of gas. Seriously, I’ll be fine. I’ve walked home in the dark a thousand times. Besides, you can’t leave. You have a house full of people waiting for you downstairs.”
I walk over to her and place my hands on her shoulders. “Lyla, I’m nothing like Kyle. I am not a dick who’s going to make you walk home alone in the middle of the night. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Lyla sighs. “I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?”
“No.” I smirk. “I legit would not be able to enjoy myself not knowing if you were walking home safely or if someone grabbed and kidnapped you. I mean, we watch true crime together. You see how it always happens. It’s the person who thinks it won’t be them that always gets snatched.”
She rolls her eyes, but there’s a smile there. “Fine, you can walk me home, but then you will need to turn around and come right back. It would be rude if the host ditched mid-party.”
