They merged into the party and became a part of it, laughing, drinking, dancing until the moon rose in a dark sky and the air turned cold. By two o’clock in the morning, the party was winding down. Kids lay sprawled on the ground, on the grass, on the porch.
Mia started to say something and stopped. “Wha was I saying?”
Zach laughed drunkenly. “You said you had a surprise for us. You’ve been saying it all night. What is it?”
“Ha, thass right,” Mia said and fell sideways. Her head smacked on a rock and she moaned, “Shit. Tha hurt…”
Lexi helped Mia sit back up. “She’s bleeding, Zach.”
They all burst into laughter at that.
Lexi tried to use her sleeve to wipe the blood off Mia’s forehead, but her balance was off and she kept poking Mia in the eye instead, and Mia just laughed harder.
Mia lurched up suddenly and stood there, swaying. “Oh man…” She clamped a hand over her mouth for a second and then stumbled sideways, falling to her knees in the sand and vomiting. The wretching sound and the smell made Lexi almost sick, too, but she went to Mia anyway, held her hair back.
“I am so hammered,” Mia finally said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve and sitting back on her heels.
Zach lurched toward them. He was so unsteady he tripped over a stone and fell down. “Is she okay?”
“Iss time to go,” Mia said. “Mom’ll kill us if we’re late. Wha time is it?”
“Two ten,” Lexi said, squinting at her watch. She thought that was right. The numbers were dancing and blurring.
“Oh SHIT.” Zach staggered to his feet. “We gotta go.”
They made their weaving, unsteady way up the bank and across the grassy lawn, stepping around the bodies of their passed-out classmates. Mia stepped on someone’s arm and laughed, yelled, “Oops! Sorry.”
As they staggered to the car, it hit Lexi: Zach was drunk. She turned to him.
He stood there, swaying like a palm tree in the trade winds, his eyes closed.
Then she looked at Mia, who was puking again. Blood was dripping down the side of her face.
“You can’t drive,” Lexi said to Zach.
Mia got closer to the car and bent forward like a rag doll, pressing her cheek against the hood. “Call Mom,” she said. She dug in her pocket for her phone, dropped it on the ground.
Lexi picked up the phone.
“No way,” Zach said. “Lass time she practically grounded us.”
“Hesh right,” Mia said. “Less jus go.”
Lexi tried to concentrate, but she couldn’t. All she could really think about was that they should call Jude, but what would Jude think of Lexi then? What if Eva found out about this? Lexi had promised to be good, and here she was at a party again.
Mia shivered violently. “I’m freezing, Zach ’tack. Where’s my coat? An my head hurts. Why does my head hurt?”
“We should sleep here,” Lexi said.
“Mom would kill us,” Zach said, stumbling forward, slamming into his car. He wrenched the driver’s door open and fell into the seat. The keys were in the well; he searched around, swearing, and then laughed, “Got ’em.”
“Get out of there, Zach,” Lexi said. “You’re too drunk to drive.” She walked around the driver’s side of the car, trying not to stumble or fall. “Mia, help me,” Lexi said. “Tell Zach he’s too drunk to drive.”
“Iss only a mile…” Mia said. “An Mom did flip out lass time we called.”
“I can do it,” Zach said, smiling sloppily.
“Come on,” Mia moaned, wiping more blood from her forehead. She opened the car door and fell into the backseat. “Ouch,” she said, laughing, and then curled up into a fetal position on the seat.
Zach slipped the key into the ignition and started the engine, which roared to life in the quiet darkness. “Come on, Lex. Iss no big deal. Less go.”
“I don’t know,” Lexi said, shaking her head. The movement pushed her off-balance and made her fall forward; she hit the side of the car. “Wait. I gotta think. This isn’t a good idea…”
Eleven
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Jude sat up, bleary-eyed.
She was on the sectional in the living room. Her cell phone lay on the cushion beside her, chirping. An infomercial flitted silently across the TV screen.
She struggled to focus on the small face of her watch. 3:37. Then she flipped open her cell phone. There was a text from Mia.