“Sorry,” I squeaked, which only got more laughter. “I… I mean it.”
“Yeah, I live right around the corner and always have.” David was in no way apologetic, just gave me his perfectly even smile, all teeth, but he seemed just as amused as everyone else at my expense, and I guess they should be.
“Uh….”
“Leave it,” Maggie said and rolled her eyes as she moved away. She grabbed glasses and tipped the bottle she held over them, pouring at least doubles into both. She clonked my shots in front of me. “Don’t exhaust me today, okay? You’re fine, punk.” She set David up with two shots as well and then went to refresh drinks along the bar.
David knocked his elbow against mine and picked up one of his glasses. “To day drinking on our day off?”
My stomach shivered. I felt bad, and I wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, but I swore up, down, and sideways that I’d never be the fuck who potentially made someone as generous as Maggie feel bad again.
The booze was one of those things I had said I wouldn’t do anymore, but one drink couldn’t hurt, or two, for that matter, and I hadn’t heard from anyone in so long, I was pretty sure they’d forgotten about me at the courthouse. Shrugging, I picked up my glass and clinked it with David’s, downing the cognac in one long, burning swallow.
The next drink went down easier. I tipped Maggie well.
The next two shots were served in tumblers and topped up, and the alcohol flowed down my throat like water.
David and I went into the back—a shadowy lounge area—to play pool, and I was feeling no pain. Two guys decided to challenge us, and when we lost, we stepped back to watch some real pros battle it out. There were tables off to the side near the pool games, and David and I took chairs at one.
“So, what do you think of the Salty Sailor?” He gestured toward the bar, and before I got any words out, Maggie hustled over to him with a pitcher of piss-yellow beer and two glasses. She patted him on the head when she dropped them on the table, and David gave her the most lovey-dovey, flirty smile I’d ever seen on anyone. I snickered, and he smacked at my arm.
“How’s that mom of yours? She getting on okay?” Maggie bent forward and leaned her elbows on the back of a chair to talk to him, and I thought David’s eyes were gonna bug right out of his head. She winked at me.
They bullshitted, and I poured two glasses of beer for David and me. The beer had no taste when I sipped, and that should have been my first clue that it was a bad idea to drink it, because I was already fucked-up, but I didn’t exactly care. My beer disappeared fast, and then David was pouring me another one.
“So, the Salty Sailor. What do you think?” he asked, looping the conversation back around to me again.
“This is great.” I smiled at him and some more people who seemed to be about our age were coming in. The place filled up fast. Maggie served everyone who came through the front door, and when the bar area was full, people began to drift, chatting and laughing, into the lounge where we were hanging out.
“Why did you ask me here?” I blurted at David after we’d been quiet for a while. My face burned hot and my body felt floaty. “Because I have a boyfriend, you know.”
David’s mouth fell open, and then he laughed until he snorted and then laughed some more. “Dude, I like chicks. I swear. Is that why you’ve been weird about hanging out?”
“No. I mean, maybe? I don’t know. I don’t really hang out with people anymore. The last guy I hung around with a lot used to get me smashed and then try to fuck me in uncomfortable places. So….” I frowned at my glass and slid it away from myself.
“Wow, that’s….” David scowled. “That’s fucked-up and cray cray.” His words were too loud, and I flinched. “Please tell me that someone jacked that dude in the face for you.”
Laughing, I rested my head on the table and slapped one hand flat on the wood. I turned my head to the side to look at him but didn’t sit up. “West wanted to, I think. I sort of wish I’d let him.”
“Damned straight. Your man has things right.”
One pitcher of beer turned into… I lost count. We shot pool. We played darts. We talked to strangers as the room filled up past capacity.
“Yeah,” one girl with braids leaned close to me to say as we scooted our chairs into a table that was already crowded with too many people. “We come here because they never card. I’m a junior.”
“In college?”
“At Mercy of Heaven. The Catholic high school on the south end of Maple.”
My mouth dropped open, and she clapped her hands, laughing. At some point it hit me that I was in fucking trouble, because there was no sun spilling in through the windows anymore, but my phone was dead, so I decided to face the music whenever I got home. This was too fun to stop.
“Kids, this is not a drill.” Maggie climbed up on the bar and clapped her hands over her head before she cupped them to her mouth. “Get the fuck out. I just got word we’re supposed to be raided. Go.” She pointed dramatically toward the front and back doors, and it was like a dam burst.
Everyone at our table bolted at the exact same time, chairs flying every which way. David hooked an arm around my shoulders and powered for the back door, laughing the whole way, even as we got elbowed and jostled. We made it through the stampede outside into the cool night air, and instead of heading for the sidewalk from the rear parking lot, he took me straight ahead to a fence that was at least twelve-feet high. The streetlights were pleasant, and nothing seemed like it could hurt me right now.
“The cops will be along the street, let’s go into this yard and then sneak to my house,” David said, far too loud. “Come on.” The big lummox hooked his hands together and stared at me. I realized this puppy-in-man-form thought I was going to hoist my drunk ass over the fence. Giggling, I rubbed my hands together, put my foot in his hands, and went precisely nowhere because I fell over instead of going up.
He laughed, and I stood and tried again. This time, I snagged the top of the fence, and he got both hands on my ass and pushed while I pulled myself up. I sailed over the top and let out a cry as I crashed to the ground on the other side. The stars overhead seemed far away, but I stretched my arm toward them anyway. Groaning and laughing, I sat up. David landed next to me and then fell to his knees.
“You okay, dude?” He leaned over and shook my shoulder.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said.
“Man, you’re fucked-up.” He grabbed my hand and hauled me to my feet, and I sort of swayed there.
“You are too.”
“Yeah.” He giggled. “Come on.” David and I sneaked through the shadows of lawns, and what seemed like forever later, we made it through the front door of one side of a duplex. He must live on top, because we traveled up a set of stairs that I ended up scaling on my belly like they were a mountain. When we got inside, David put a finger to his lips and pointed. On the couch was a woman hooked up to oxygen. The room was dark, and the flickering television painted her a prism of colors. Her hair was everywhere, and I couldn’t see her face. She had a blanket pulled up to her chin.
“Mom.”
“What’s wrong with her?”