His hand glared at his fingers, where I’d left teeth marks, and then that hand balled into a fist.
I cringed, bracing for impact when across from us, the door opened. Someone stumbled out of it so fast they knocked into the asshole who intended to harm me.
Billy swayed on his feet and it was enough for me to kick at his leg, sending him sprawling to the floor.
I didn’t look back. I ran down the stairs, and ducked into the kitchen that was filled with people, searching for Kendra but I stayed there, around people, and frantically texted Josh.
He’d fix this. He’d save me.
“Josh!” I screamed at him while he pummeled his fist into Billy’s face.
As soon as he showed up, rage poured from every one of his pores.
He took one look at my face, shoved his finger in my direction at the scratches on my cheek and shouted, “Tell me who in the fuck had the gall to fucking put their hands on you!”
I didn’t hesitate.
Billy had what was coming to him.
I didn’t expect Josh to totally lose his shit and still be punching his face even though the guy was already passed out.
He yanked his arm back to let forth another round of punches when I grabbed his arm.
“Let’s just go,” I said.
“Not done with him. No one fucks up my sister. No one.”
“Come on.” I yanked on him until he stood and then pressed my hands to his chest and shoved him backward. He seemed steady on his feet, eyes filled with rage but not hazy from beer. Maybe a little too alert. “I just want to go home. Are you sober?”
“I’m sober enough, Lilly.”
“We can call an Uber.”
“That’s stupid. We’re two miles from home.”
I’d been in the car with my brother before when he was drunk. He always insisted on driving. I’d never once gotten behind the wheel. He’d sideswiped a mailbox and ruined the third stall garage door when he forgot to open it before trying to park inside.
Tonight he didn’t seem nearly as bad.
“I just need a drink. Only one. To calm down before Dad sees me or finds out about this.”
This was the rearranging of Billy’s face. He glanced down at the guy who’d touched me. Who tried to attack me and spit right on his pummeled and bloody and swollen face.
My brother threw his arm around me and pulled me to his side, guiding us toward the house where the party was back into full swing. He ignored the small crowd who had lingered, wanted the view of him punching someone but Josh only had his focus on me.
“It’s you and me, Lilly. Always. I’ll always be here for you whenever you need me. Even if I do have to leave a kickass party on campus to help. You know that right?”
“I know, Josh.”
It was us. Together. Always. We were all we had.
Despite the mention of the party he left, despite the drink he had, one more for me even though I’d quit drinking hours ago, he seemed okay.
Not sober, but I’d seen him worse.
After his drink was done, he tossed his keys in the air and tried to catch them in his fist. He dropped the keys and laughed.
“We can take an Uber,” I suggested.
“Nonsense,” he slurred and bent down to pick them up. “It’s two miles.”
It’d snowed earlier. Roads were wet. I couldn’t drive.
“Whatever,” I mumbled and hopped into the truck. Like Josh said, it was only two miles.
Two miles with rarely any traffic and only a couple of turns.
We’d be fine.
“Josh!”
I shook his shoulder and screamed his name again. His chin had hit his chest. But it was too late. The curve too sharp and he was pressing the gas too hard.
“Josh!” I screamed so loud my throat burned and reached for the steering wheel but it was too far away, my seat belt preventing me from grabbing it.
Not that I could do anything with my brother passed out behind the wheel.
“Josh! Wake up!”
My screams were cut off by bright lights in our faces. They blinded me and I screamed right as the car somehow swerved and missed us. Tires squealed and I slapped Josh’s cheek. “Wake up, you asshole!”
But it was too late. He was gone and the truck flew right off the edge of the road.
We hit the ditch and I fell forward, slammed my face onto the dash, then my shoulder to the window. I was bounced again and pain so fierce slashed my temple, I bent over.
“Josh! Wake up!”
The truck played me like a ping-pong ball, tires scratching, and then all I saw was a tree, racing toward us. Josh’s foot still on the gas.
I covered my face, braced for impact and all the horrific screeching sounds amplified until there was nothing but the truck’s horn, the racing of my heart.
“Josh? You awake yet?” That had to have woken him up.
I pushed down the white pillow of the airbag and looked to my left.
“Josh?! Josh!?
The driver’s side was empty. Glass was everywhere. The front window. The driver’s side door. Glass was gone. And Josh was nowhere.
“Oh fuck,” I groaned. Something wet slid down my face and my arm felt like it’d been yanked a thousand directions but I was alive.
I was breathing. And I could move.
Move!
“Josh! Where are you!?”
I unbuckled my seat belt and scrambled over the console to his seat.
And then I looked out the window’s empty frame.
Blood.
So much blood.
And then everything went black.
“But I wasn’t driving. Josh—”
My dad was bent over the edge of my hospital bed, arms braced, scowl etched in place so harshly. I’d seen that look before. Frequently. Usually right before his hand curled into a fist. “Josh’s reputation will be ruined. I will be ruined if anyone finds out about this.”
“But…” My chin trembled. I could no longer deny what happened. “Is… is he okay? Where is he?”
I’d came to while being loaded into an ambulance. Vaguely I remembered the EMT mumbling to his partner, “Teenage kids and alcohol. Fucking rich kids.”
“No joke,” I’d said, right before I passed out again.
“Josh will be fine. But you were in the driver’s seat, so you can’t tell me you weren’t driving.”
“I wasn’t. Josh was. I just climbed over…”
“Shut your fucking mouth.” My dad leaned over me on the bed, shoved his finger in my face.
His words hit me like a slap and I laid back in the bed. Monitors beeped next to me, checking my vitals. My heartbeat. Ten stitches in my temple and a dislocated shoulder.
Josh… no one yet had told me about him, so I assumed the worst.
“I don’t give a flying fuck if Peter Pan was driving that truck. You’ll say you did. You don’t, and Josh’s future will be absolutely destroyed. He has too much history. Are you laying there telling me you want to be responsible for that? For destroying your brother? This family?”
“But—” My head was too cloudy. I was either sobering up or they’d given me meds. Pain meds, hopefully. Actually, I hoped they gave me an hallucinogenic. My dad couldn’t be asking this of me. “It wasn’t my fault. Will Josh be okay?”