Page 46 of My Twin Sister

She squeals and hops out of his reach. “What?” she asks. “I took kickboxing for a few years. But it was a workout class. We only ever punched and kicked bags.”

“You could have laid Tara out!” he says.

She shakes her head. “I wouldn’t have hit her.”

Murphy shrugs. “She would have deserved it. I told you I hadn’t seen her in a long time. I had no idea she was still a lunatic.”

Grace smiles, but it looks sad. “She’s not. It was a misunderstanding.”

It didn’t look like a misunderstanding to me. It looked like Tara very much understood that she wanted to punch my sister in the face. Tara had always been hot-blooded when we were younger, but she distanced herself from all of us shortly after Grace disappeared. She seemed to have grown up. But I guess those parts of us never really go away. No one grows out of who they are to their core.

Grace throws back drink after drink, and by the end of the night, she’s properly drunk. She doesn’t have work in the morning. I remember suddenly that I never called in at work today. I just didn’t show up. Brittney is going to be pissed. She’s probably blown up my phone. My heart starts to race as I search my pockets and my purse for my cell. I just had it earlier.

“Geny? You okay? What are you looking for?” Wyatt asks.

“My phone.”

“Oh, it’s right here.” He picks something up from the ground and hands it to me. My phone. I must’ve dropped it.

The screen lights up, and sure enough, there are half a dozen missed calls from my boss and twice as many texts. I completely forgot to call her, and I haven’t looked at my phone since I asked Wyatt about tonight’s plans.

My stomach is in knots as I text my boss and apologize. It’s time for us to go. I look over at Grace, and she’s laughing with Murphy. I’m not leaving her here or letting her drive home in her state.

“Hey, Grace? We need to get home. We have work in the morning,” I say.

I don’t normally work on Tuesdays, but I plan to offer to take Brittney’s shift as an apology.

She looks up with big brown eyes. “Okay. Drive safe.”

“Come home with us. I’ll drive you, and you can pick up your car tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to do that. I can drive.”

“Please? It would make me feel better.” I know she’ll argue if I make this about her and her ability or level of drunkenness. I’m hoping she might still be feeling bad enough about last night and be agreeable for once.

She sighs. “You probably have work in the morning too, don’t you?” she asks Murphy.

“Unfortunately,” he says.

“Ugh. Lame.” She stands up and my muscles relax.

Murphy gets up and starts dumping a few buckets of water into the fire. Wyatt helps him, and Grace walks up to the house with me. Inside the kitchen, she pulls the tissue out of her nose.

“Is it bleeding still?” She tilts her head back and sways.

“Nope. I think you’re good.” I watch her, ready to reach out and steady her if I need to.

She tosses the tissues into the garbage, and we walk to the front door. The guys come in and meet us there.

“Thanks for coming by, guys. Besides the random fight club moment, it was a lot of fun. Nice for us to be back together.”

“Thanks for having us,” Wyatt says. “We’ll do it again soon. Sans fight club.”

“Says who?” Grace holds up her fists and looks around at us. The guys laugh.

I loop my arm through Grace’s and start toward the door. “Bye, Murphy. Thanks for everything.”

Grace gets into the back seat without argument and I breathe easily when I start the car and we’re on the road. It turned out not to be as bad a night as I thought it was turning into. Not as good as I’d hoped, but not as bad. Grace was occupied with Murphy, and though I could feel it bothering Wyatt, it gave us time together.