The Thrashers(69)

The two people said nothing, but then the second one cracked open a water bottle. Then soft hands were on her chin, wiping at her mouth.

“It’s okay, baby girl.” Paige. She ran her fingers through the hair at Jodi’s neck. “Let’s drink some water, okay?”

Jodi blinked away the haze and took the bottle from her. Paige smiled, even as she crouched over Jodi’s sick.

“I’ll find a towel for the carpet, or…” Zack. Zack was here.

“Yeah, and get one for the car,” said Paige.

Jodi swallowed three sips of water, wondering if she was asleep. Paige grabbed her elbow and helped her stand.

“What about Emily?” Jodi said, turning over her shoulder to the bed.

Empty. She’d been alone.

“What?” Paige said, a panic in her voice.

Jodi shook her head, then abruptly stopped when it made things worse. “Nothing. I was … I was dreaming.”

Zack met them at the door with a beach towel stolen from somewhere.

“Why aren’t you in Napa?” she asked him when he took her elbow from Paige. “How did you get here?” Just then, Julian appeared at the top of the stairs, having taken them two at a time.

He stopped when he saw her. She immediately wondered what she looked like.

“Do you have your phone?” Paige asked, closing the bedroom door behind them. Jodi nodded. “Okay, we’ll charge it in the car. Let’s go home.”

Eyes turned on them as they passed people smoking on the staircase, and it seemed like the entire living room was waiting for them to descend by the time they came into view.

“Hey. Everything okay?”

Jodi turned and saw Oliver putting out a cigarette, coming around from the side porch. He looked between Zack and the others.

“Yeah, I drank too much—”

A fist slammed into Oliver’s jaw, sending him tumbling sideways. Paige yelled and Jodi jumped.

Julian was on top of him in a flash, tugging him up by his shirt and punching him again.

“Julian!”

“You know,” he hissed. Oliver’s eye was split. His nose bleeding. “You know and you know she doesn’t drink—”

“She’s her own person, not your lapdog. She makes her own choices—”

Julian’s fist reared back.

“Hit me again and I swear to god, I’ll press charges.” Oliver’s eyes were bright, rage-filled.

The sharp crack of Julian’s knuckles connecting with Oliver’s face resonated again, and then he was standing, heading toward his truck and starting the engine.

Jodi stared down in horror at Oliver’s bloody teeth and swollen eye. Zack leaned down to help him up, but he jerked away, snarling, “Get the fuck out of here.”

She thought she should stay and make sure Oliver was okay, but Paige took Jodi to the left, where her car was parked in a neighbor’s driveway. Tossing Zack the keys, Paige slipped into the back seat with Jodi. She spread the beach towel across the floor just in case Jodi needed to throw up again, and then let Jodi lay her head in her lap. Zack turned off the radio, backed out of the driveway, and followed the black truck out of South Sac. They didn’t say anything until Jodi finally asked, “When did you get back from Napa?”

Zack cleared his throat. “We’re not. Julian’s parents are still up there. He and I drove back after you called him.”

She remembered her suspicion. The idea that they were all there without her.

“Paige, were you there?”

“No, I was home, remember? I met them here once we figured out where you were.”

Jodi watched hot tears spill down over Paige’s knees as her hair was pulled away from her neck, patterns traced through her scalp like Jodi did for her.

She slept in one of the Thrashers’ guest rooms. Two water bottles poured down her throat and a pair of aspirin later, and she was out, Paige’s fingertips still braiding and unbraiding her hair.

When she woke up to sunlight breaking through the part in the curtains, Paige was asleep next to her, and Lucy was passed out in the armchair, curled into a ball with her phone still in her hand.





Chapter Twenty


JANUARY

Jodi was properly mortified by the time she’d sobered up come daybreak. She also had to pee, but she didn’t want to wake up Paige and Lucy yet.

But none of that mattered when the bedroom door opened with a quiet click, and Paige shot up in bed, wiping her drool and squinting at Zack in the doorway.

“Sorry, sorry.”

Lucy shifted in the armchair, pulling a blanket up over her head until she disappeared. Paige reached for her phone, as if to press the snooze button. He crept over to Jodi and paused when he found her awake.

“Rosa can’t reach you,” he whispered.

“Fuck.” Jodi hadn’t responded to her yet, hoping she could pass it off as passing out and getting “Oliver” to drive her back in the morning. She opened her phone.

“I told her I was at the party, and you’re at my house now.”

She sat up and rubbed her thumbs under her eyes. Jodi was still reeling from the stupidity of the past six hours. Her cheeks flushed and tears pricked her eyes.

“Okay, thanks,” she said, unable to meet his eyes. “Can I take a shower?”